June 7, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 6, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

HYDERABAD, June 6: Senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmed has said that the failure of parleys between the opposition and the government would disappoint the people and embolden anti-Pakistan elements.

He observed if politicians fail to deliver the goods, they are thrown out of the power but the army failure endangers the very existence of the country.

He was delivering a lecture on “Constitution, Democracy and the LFO” at the Hyderabad Press Club on Friday.

Prof Ghafoor said the country was in a grip of a serious political crisis and the government had summoned the budgetary session of the National Assembly on June 7 without taking the opposition into confidence on the Leal Framework Order as recommended by the constitutional committee.

He said the rulers’ attitude could be gauged from the fact that they had started a propaganda campaign against the opposition that it was creating problems and that the public had no interest in the LFO.

The MMA leader said the prime minister had gone to the extent of saying that the opposition was trying to make an issue out of a non-issue. He said President Pervez Musharraf had brought about 29 amendments in the Constitution unilaterally and arbitrarily which had totally distorted it.

He said Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had a majority in the national assembly and was in a position to get the constitution approved but he came to the table.

The veteran leader said late Bhutto held an exhaustive dialogue with all political parties for full one year to build up a consensus on a constitutional draft and it was only after that the 1973 Constitution was adopted unanimously.

He said, contrary to this, Pervez Musharraf had relied on the Supreme Court decision which had only conditionally empowered him to bring about only minor amendments in the constitution which were considered necessary to run the affairs of the state.

Prof Ghaffor said taking undue advantage of the decision of the apex court, General Pervez Musharraf had changed the entire structure of the 1973 Constitution.

He said when the Supreme Court itself had no authority to change the Constitution how could it allow basic changes in unanimously adopted constitution.

Prof Ghafoor said Gen Musharraf had committed a flagrant violation of the Constitution by proclaiming himself the president as well as the Chief of Army Staff for the next five years. He said this was an insult to 140 million people of the country.

He said the extension in the age limit of superior courts judges was also a clear violation of the constitution as was the so-called presidential referendum.

He said all these extra constitutional measures had been taken to prolong the rule of just one man.

Prof Ghafoor observed that there were times when the masses loved the army but now they hated this institution.

Replying to a question about the budgetary session, Prof Ghafoor Ahmed said that the rulers had sent a signal to the MNAs that if they did not toe the line, their fate will be no different from that of the MPAs of Punjab who were thrown out of the house by force.

Answering another question about the NWFP assembly, the MMA leader said that any direct interference into the affairs of the province would be a violation of the provincial autonomy. Local Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, Maulana Abdul Wahid Qureshi, Maulana Shaikh Shoukat Ali and others were present on the occasion. The vice president and the general secretary of the press club, Shahid Shaikh and Junaid Khanzada welcomed the veteran leader.