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| May 15, 2005 | Sunday | Rabi-us-Sani 6, 1426 |
Al Qaeda, Taliban products of establishment, says ANP
MANSEHRA, May 14: Central president of the Awami National Party, Asfandyar Wali Khan, has said that Al Qaeda and Taliban are not the products of Pukhtun society, but are the brainchild of the establishment in Pakistan. At the second leg of his visit to Hazara, he was speaking at the District Bar Association in the Bar Room here on Saturday.
He said the language that Gen Pervez Musharraf was using against Baloch leaders had been used by Gen Yahya against Bengali leadership in 1971.
The ANP leader said national reconciliation was the need to save the country from the threats posed to its solidarity.
He said the military rulers by damaging the sanctity of institutions had ridiculed parliamentary democracy. Pakistan had undergone a very odd experience of parliamentary democracy under the rule of Gen Musharraf.
Referring to judiciary, Asfandyar Wali Khan said the president and prime minister had taken oath under the constitution, but the judges of superior judiciary were working after taking oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order.
He said it was astonishing that during operation in Fata, the people were being arrested on the allegations of providing shelters to suspected militants, but the Al Qaeda operatives had been arrested from either Punjab or Sindh.
Referring to 1973 constitution and the issue of provincial autonomy, he said 1973 constitution was unanimous, but conditional.
The very condition was to reopen the issue of the provincial autonomy, but it could not be as Ziaul Haq took over the charge of the country.
He said the ANP stood firm to the stand that centre should keep only defence, foreign policy and currency with it and provinces be given autonomy in all other matters.
Asfandyar Wali said the federal budget was in the offing, but neither the NFC award had been announced nor president could address the joint session of parliament. If the president addressed the joint session now, the discussion would be on budget or on his address in the forthcoming parliament session, he observed.
He said the last meeting of the Council of Common Interests had been held during the Moin Qureshi’s regime, but despite the lapse of 15 years, CCI meeting was yet to be held.
In reply to the questions of lawyers, he said that while speaking about Balochistan, Gen Pervez Musharaf should recall the lessons from history. People had accumulated heaps of lethal weapons every where in the country due to wrong foreign policy on Afghanistan being followed by the rulers for 30 years, he maintained.
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