ISLAMABAD, Aug 27: President of Qaumi Jamhoori Party (QJP) Air Marshal Asghar Khan said on Tuesday that a stable and enduring democratic system could not be established in the country without eliminating army’s role in politics.

“I am against army’s role in politics,” he said at a press conference held here at the QJP secretariat.

The retired air marshal reiterated his views that the key to the establishment of stable democratic process lay with India. As long as there was a threat from India, Pakistan could not have a strong democratic system.

In face of threat of aggression, the people always looked towards the generals for security and the role of politicians was marginalized, he said.

Clarifying that the threat perception from India was not totally unfounded, he said, there was a need to resolve all the outstanding issues with Kashmiris, and Pakistan should agree on setting up of an independent state.

“There should be a condominium between India, Pakistan and China over Kashmir,” he said.

He went on to say that Kashmir after independence should not have any army as it would be an impediment in its development and prosperity. Kashmir without an army would be a very prosperous country with all its tourism potential and significant mineral resources, he added.

Air Marshal Asghar Khan also called upon the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take up the case of ISI having distributed Rs140 million among politicians, pending since 1996.

The case should be taken up and decided before the holding of general elections and all those involved in receiving and dolling out the money should be debarred from contesting the elections, he added.

The ISI was only used by the then government for distribution of money, the case was actually against the corrupt politicians, Khan said.

He said conclusive evidence was available and it was almost an open-and-shut case. He had submitted a list of all those who had been given the money and the list also contained the signatures of the recipients, he pointed out.

The veteran politician expressed dismay over the government’s failure to address the issue of excessive use of money and transportation to ferry voters by the candidates to polling stations.

Transportation alone required three to four million rupees, he observed.