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| November 23, 2002 | Saturday | Ramazan 17, 1423 |
PRM condemns election process of speaker
RAWALPINDI, Nov 22: The People’s Rights Movement (PRM) has condemned the non-transparent and partial election process which seriously undermined the legitimacy of the outcomes of elections for speaker and leader of the house.
This was discussed at a meeting of the PRM which was held here on Friday at the movement’s central office near Faizabad.
It is now clear that the military and its secret agencies manipulated the process to a large extent, and this is reflected in the elections of the PML-Q candidates to the seats of speaker and leader of the house.
The meeting also deliberated on the ongoing struggles of the PRM’s constituent movements and what strategies should be employed to continue propagating the needs and rights of the marginalized groups.
Indeed, the PRM condemned state coercion that continued to take place after October 10, the result of which was the formation of the so-called forward bloc of the PPP.
Kutcha abadi dwellers, the rural landless, affected persons of mega-development projects, fishing communities, formal and informal sector labourers, subsistence farmers, forest owners and non-owners, and a host of other traditionally marginalized groups remained peripheral to the entire charade that has taken place prior to, and after October 10.
The meeting concluded that the military’s tirade against politicians over the past three years was based on the failings of the so-called elected governments in the period between 1988 and 1999. However, those governments were largely regulated by the military, in much the same way as the new incoming government is likely to be.
It said in such a situation, particularly with international financial institutions (IFIs) demanding continuity of neo-liberal policies, as ordinary Pakistanis recede further into acute economic difficulty, the political process could again be held hostage by the military under the banner of ineptness of politicians.
The PRM refused to accept the validity of the Legal Framework Order (LFO) and the host of constitutional amendments that the military had enacted to institutionalize its domination over the affairs of the state.
The PRM also demanded that Gen Pervez Musharraf sought the elections as president through constitutional means, and that the National Security Council (NSC) be dissolved.
The meeting demanded that the supremacy of the parliament must be ensured, and the military withdrawn from political sphere.
Finally, the PRM urged the newly-elected representatives to break the long-standing trends of patronage and personality-based politics, and to truly work for the working class of the country.
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