February 11, 2002	Monday	Ziqa’ad 27, 1422

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PESHAWAR, Feb 10: Tehreek-i-Istaqlal (TI) chief Rehmat Khan Wardag has urged rulers to implement the agriculture reforms if they want Pakistan to achieve food autarky, and to prosper working class and rural population.

Speaking at the TI provincial convention at the Peshawar Press Club here on Sunday, he held the civil-cum-military bureaucrats, feudal lords and capitalists responsible for the socio-economic morass and political chaos in the country.

He said the successive rulers had divided the nation on petty issues to manage their long stay in power. They had always tried to shelve the national issues like a sound economy based on self-sufficiency, a real and strong democracy, and betterment of the masses, he observed.

He asked the rulers to give democracy a chance to flourish as it was the only mode which, if could be allowed to work, might help in nation building process. A handful of the elite class had always been opposed to democratic dispensation in Pakistan,  he added.

TI chief asked the government to approach Kabul for the release of Pakistanis detained at different places after the collapse of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Reacting to Indian threats, he said negotiations were the only solution to the issues between India and Pakistan. The aggressive attitude of the Indian government would escalate further tension across the border, he added.