Leaders of most political parties said no to Dr Tahirul Qadri’s long march on Thursday, calling it a move to derail democracy. They were speaking at the All Parties Conference organised by Supreme Court Bar Association at a hotel in Lahore.
Among the speakers were Pakistan Muslim League chief Nawaz Sharif, Federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, Milli Awami Party chairman Mahmood Khan Achakzai, Jamaat-i-Islami deputy secretary general Farid Ahmed Paracha, Robina Shah of the Jamhoori Watan Party, Hasil Bizenjo of the National Party, Senator Hamidullah Khan of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, former Supreme Court Bar Association president Asma Jahangir, Afrasiab Khattak of the Awami National Party, Dr Khalid Ranjha of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam, Shafqat Mahmood of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and senior lawyers from all provinces.
All the speakers except for the Balochistan High Court Bar Association President Zahoor Shahwani criticised the long march call. Shahwani defended the call saying that no one had condemned Anna Hazare’s rallies and sit-ins.
Nawaz Sharif, who spoke in the first session, also criticised the federal government for electric and gas load shedding. He said if the federal government had delivered on its promises there would have been no need for such a conference. Even dictators who had been welcomed when they arrived, he said, had to be ousted when they failed the public. Sharif said it was shameful when a democratically elected government failed to deliver.
Sharif said that Pakistan was far behind some of the SAARC countries. There had been a loss of confidence in state institutions because of the government’s poor policies, he added. Sharif said the government had failed to assert its writ in the missing-persons cases.
He appreciated the role of the Supreme Court. He said the government only took action when the judiciary nudged it. Speaking about the murder of Shahzeb Khan, he said the government was only taking action on the matter after the court took notice of it.
Sharif said politicians were to blame for the failure of law and order in Karachi. Karachi once a commercial hub, now faced lawlessness, he said. He said many businessmen, now, preferred Bangladesh over Pakistan.
Sharif said he had wanted to support democracy by cooperating with the Pakistan Peoples Party government. However, he said, he had been betrayed at every step.
Sharif said Balochistan would not return to normalcy until free and fair elections were held there. He said if the PML-N government took power at the Centre, he would cooperate with any government elected in Balochistan.
He said as prime minister, he had had no problems with the popularly elected Balochistan chief minister Akhtar Mengal. He said after he had to end Mengal’s government under pressure, the new chief minister used to go and meet the chief of army staff as soon as he reached Islamabad and ignore the prime minister.
He said Pakistan and India were the only two countries in the world today that were exchanging border fire. He said such matters should be resolved through dialogue.
He criticised Chaudhry Pervez Elahi for being part of the government yet defending the long march against the government.
Mahmood Khan Achakzai said many PPP leaders were his friends but sometime they did things like NROs which he did not endorse. He said Pakistan should evict Tajiks, Chechens and Uzbeks and try to ensure that its citizens were not attacked. He said state agencies should not play any role in politics.
He said all challenges to democracy should be resisted. He said if Dr Tahirul Qadri indeed had the support of 4 million people as he claimed, he should reach the parliament through election.
Afrasiab Khattak said the long march organisers wanted a caretaker government to have a long tenure. He said all political parties should defend democracy regardless of their differences. He also said that terrorism was a bigger threat to the country than the long march.
Dr Khalid Ranjha said lack of commitment to democratic norms was the problem and not the ballot box. He said there must be elections and political parties must put forward solid candidates.
PTI’s Shafqat Mahmood said his party was standing firm in support of democracy and the Constitution. He said they were against those trying to create hindrances to the democratic process. Asma Jahangir said the bloodshed over the past week, had been unprecedented. She said people were facing a severe shortage of electricity and gas. She said the politicians should be on the streets like Bashir Bilour and Malala Yousafzai.
She said there should be a clear policy regarding trade with India. She said some people preferred having relations with nominally Muslim countries that “hang our citizens and never pay attention to our problems.” She said most Pakistani’s criticise America but the government lean towards it for fulfillment of its various needs. Jahangir said when a political government decided to have trade with India, the military establishment became a hindrance. She said there should have been a long march against drone attacks and terrorism.
Farid Paracha said, “The ABC of democracy had never reached XYZ as the GHQ fell in the way.”
Published in The Express Tribune, January 11th, 2013.