04 September 2004	Saturday	18 Rajab 1425

PESHAWAR, Sept 3: Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achekzai has held intelligence agencies responsible for the present political uncertainty and mess where political non-entities backed by the agencies are running the show.

Speaking at the Peshawar Press Club's Meet the Press programme here on Friday, Mr Achekzai claimed that the growing influence of secret agencies had brought the country to the verge of disintegration. The political parties had been reduced to the level of pressure groups, which lacked clear-cut political programmes and manifestos, he added.

"Unless secret agencies and armed forces go back to their main task, the country is destined to face a permanent military dictatorship. Our political system, that revolves around interests of a select class, has become a joke in the world," Mr Achekzai observed.

He said Pakistan was a multinational state which was being run by the Punjab, a dominant nationality, which was not ready to listen to and redress problems and complaints of three smaller nations. This state of affairs, he said, was stressing the need for inking a new social contract between five main nationalities of Pakistan.

Mr Achakzai called upon the rulers that if they wanted to keep the federation intact they should form a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution reflecting aspirations of all the nationalities.

He said the demand of the new constitution was neither unlawful nor unjust, instead it was a genuine demand by smaller nationalities. If the present rulers could offer the three small federating units a solution of their demands within the framework of the 1973 Constitution, the three small nationalities would not demand a new constitution. The successive military rulers had tampered with the 1973 Constitution and amended it to suit to their interests.

The PMAP chief said: "Pushtuns demand their due rights in Pakistan, otherwise they are not ready to live like second-class citizens of the country. We have been struggling to unite all divided Pushtuns under one umbrella. We lack an identity.

We are treated like slaves even on our own soil. This state of affairs needs to be changed immediately," he added. After the end of One-Unit, he said, military rulers had deprived the Pushtuns of their (Commissioner's) province in Balochistan and Seraikis of Bahawalpur province, which had their own elected assemblies.

Since then both Pashtuns and Sraikis had been fighting for their identity within the Federation of Pakistan, he added. Mr Achekzai denied that Baloch nationalists were opposed to social development or the construction of seaports along the Makran Coast. The Baloch people were not ready to be converted into a minority like Red Indians in America, he added.