ARD to apprise C’wealth of democracy in Pakistan -DAWN

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August 27, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 28, 1424

ARD to apprise C’wealth of democracy in Pakistan

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Aug 26: The opposition ARD has compiled a report containing details of the incidents that occurred in the National Assembly on Friday and Monday to inform the Commonwealth and International Parliamentary Union (IPU) about the “state of democracy” in Pakistan, a source told Dawn on Tuesday.

The source said the ARD had compiled the report on the request of the Commonwealth, which had asked the opposition alliance to keep it informed about the events taking place in Pakistan after the elections 2002.

He said the 27-page report contained details of the incident in which “State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Raza Hayat Hiraj used abusive language against a woman opposition member and tried to attack her inside the assembly”.

He said the report had also mentioned the “abusive language” used by some other members of the treasury benches and “objectionable gestures” made by “PPP defector Dr Sher Afgan”.

The report also provided details of President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s meeting with 40 members of the ruling coalition in which he had asked them to be “proactive”, the source added.

In the report, which would be sent to the Commonwealth and the IPU in a day or two, the ARD had claimed that the coalition partners had adopted the strategy to deal with the opposition members on the directives of President Musharraf.

The source said the Commonwealth and the IPU had been informed that there was no democracy in the country and “Gen Musharraf was still calling the shots”.

He said ARD chief and veteran politician Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan was also leaving for Europe to apprise western democracies about the “state of democracy” in the country.

He said the opposition had requested the Commonwealth countries not to restore Pakistan’s membership as there was no democracy in the true sense of the term in the country and it would remain so as long as the LFO remained a part of the Constitution without being approved by parliament.