KARACHI, July 7: Veteran politician and the chief of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, has criticized the government for its refusal to grant permission to the ARD to hold its scheduled public meeting at Qasimabad, Hyderabad, for which permission had been give by the District Nazim.
He said: “The high-handedness on the part of the government shows how serious it is about the restoration of democracy.”
The Nawabzada, who is also the President of the Pakistan Democratic Party, was talking to a group of newsmen on Sunday, at the residence of his party leader Mushtaq Mirza.
He said if the political parties were not to be allowed to go to the people to muster support for their manifestos and solution of the problems being faced by the country, how could they mobilize the voters to get their mandate.
“Dictators always try to make the political process impossible,” he said, adding the administration had sent a clarification for cancellation of the permission for the Qasimabad public meeting due to non-availability of police as they were on security duty for the Daniel Pearl case at the Central Prison Hyderabad.
The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy chief said: “We have not asked for police as our public meetings are peaceful. We believe in non-violence; our public meetings have never created law and order problem.”
He said at the time of the referendum, the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy was given permission to hold its public meeting in the last stages, but despite the short notice and “the attempts on the part of the administration to create hurdles in the way of people who wanted to attend the meeting, a peaceful meeting was held.”
“The absence of democracy has all along harmed national unity and produced instability,” he said.
Quoting a Persian saying about the genie who occupy an empty house, he claimed that in the absence of the democratic process the genie had already taken over the country in the form of ethnic, sectarian and regional prejudices.
“This is the main reason way the Pakistani nation is not visible anywhere,” he claimed.
Talking about the new presidential order debarring a person who held the offices of prime minister or chief minister for two terms will not be eligible to hold these offices for the third term, he said nowhere in the world where there was parliamentary form of government such law existed. British prime minister Mrs Thatcher was elected prime minister three times and Pandit Nehru and Indira Gandhi also remained prime minister for more than two terms, he said.
About the constitutional package, he claimed that in the proposals all powers had been concentrated in one person. “If the proposals are made part of the constitution, the 1973 constitution would neither remain parliamentary, nor federal, nor presidential,” he said.
He said the central body of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy would be meeting on Tuesday here at Bilawal House to deliberate on the prevailing situation to be followed by press briefing.
The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy’s provincial leaders called on the Nawabzada and discussed arrangements for a public meeting at Fatah Chowk, Hyderabad.
Among others, the Nawabzada, Nisar Khuhro and Rashid Rabbani are expected to speak a the meeting.
