ISLAMABAD, June 2: Qaumi Jamhori Party (QJP) chief Air Marshal Mohammad Asghar Khan (retired) has condemned parliamentarians’ interference in local bodies which led to resignations of all 24 district Nazims in the NWFP.

Speaking at a news conference, he regretted that the parliamentarian’s lust for power had jeopardized the nascent local bodies system introduced by President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

QJP central vice president Syed Nusrat Ali Shah was also present on the occasion.

Mr Khan said the resignations of 24 district Nazims was, in fact, a retaliatory measure against the “parliamentarian’s hegemonic character”.

He said: “Our struggle is based on two principles. Firstly, there should be no injustice, as happened with the Bengalis in East Pakistan; secondly, the war against our colonial heritage, bureaucracy, that has always proved a menace to our political stability, should be waged for empowerment of the poor masses.”

Mr Khan said people wanted democracy, and local bodies were its best form that could be implemented in countries like Pakistan, instead of bowing before the pressure of the parliamentarians, as happened in the NWFP.

He said members of the parliament wanted full powers, but Gen Musharraf was right to delegate it to the grass roots level, because it had minimized corruption of parliamentarians, who had returned to assemblies on the basis of politics of legacy. — PPI