HYDERABAD, Jan 21: The central leaders of different political parties have rejected a permanent political role for the army in the Constitution.

The leaders said that the armed forces should better defend the frontiers and should stop derailing the process of democracy.

They were speaking in a meeting held to pay tribute to the services of Mir Ali Ahmed Khan Talpur and Mir Rasool Bux Khan Talpur on the occasion of ‘Mir brothers day’ in Mir Garden here on Sunday,

In his presidential speech, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, chief of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, urged the people to get united on one platform and strive for their rights as an independent nation.

He said that President Gen Pervez Musharraf had tried to give an impression to the world that he had given a road map for the restoration of democracy in the country.

The political activities had been restricted in the country and the political parties were not able to maintain a contact with their constituents, he said.

He said that PPP deserved credit for the 1973 constitution which was promulgated by the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in close coordination of the then combined opposition. The constitution was a sacred document but it was treated quite roughly by the rulers, he added.

The head of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement demanded that the Constitution of Pakistan should be re-written as it had failed to cater to the needs of the people at large in the country and said that there was no harm in writing a new constitution.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief of the Pakistan Tahrik-i-Insaf, Imran Khan, also paid homage to the Mir brothers for their services to common man.

He said that the political leaders were equally responsible for the current crisis. It was the eleven years period of democracy in which poverty had attained great heights. During democracy the loans of $27 billion increased to $70 billion and 50 million people were living below the poverty line.

On account of this frustration that people had welcomed Gen Pervez Musharraf when he dislodged the PML government in Oct 1999.

In his opinion the non-provision of justice to people was the main factor that people were openly criticizing successive governments for their pitiable condition.

He said that while huge development took place in Raiwind during the PML era, the people of Lahore were still crying for better facilities of education, water and health like Sindh.

Mr Khan said that the country was going through a very critical phase coupled with the shabby economic condition and that is why Pakistan decided to join world coalition against terrorism on one call from the United States. Had we refused to join the coalition, the IMF would have stopped funding and the country would have doomed.

He said that he had travelled through the length and breadth of Pakistan and had witnessed squalor, backwardness and lack of development. He admitted that such conditions were at its peak in Sindh.

The acting convener of the Ponam, Mahmood Khan Achakzai, held the Punjabi civil and military bureaucracy responsible for the present morass saying that it was the Punjabi military bureaucracy which had prevented promulgation of the 1973 constitution for nine years because it was not ready to accept the numerical strength of Bengalis.

He pledged to continue struggle against any permanent role of army and agencies in politics. If the army generals were fond of politics then they should form their own political party in the name of Pakistani Fauji Democratic Party and only then they would come to know how difficult it was to seek votes.

Demanding a new constitution in the true spirit of 1940 resolution, he said it should be defined in the constitution that whenever it was abrogated or suspended the nations would declare independence. The army and other institutions would have to respect this constitution and only the National Assembly would be the real power of people.

He offered cooperation to the ARD only to oppose the military rule and said that the ARD could not go along with the Ponam because they differed on one main point of the constitution.

The Ponam was ready to struggle with the ARD for an interim constitution which should follow elections and then the promulgation of new constitution under a new system.

The secretary general, Mohajir Qaumi Movement, Amir Khan, said that Mohajirs were being treated discriminately because they were always referred to as new Sindhis.

The chairman, Sindh Tarraqi Passand Party, and Convener, Ponam, Sindh, Dr Qadir Magsi, argued that the county could not walk on the path of progress because the identity of different nations was not accepted so far. He said that politicians who believed in federation failed to realize the issues of smaller provinces.