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ISLAMABAD, Sept 8: Chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Benazir Bhutto and chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Nawaz Sharif have called upon the people to make the Friday strike a complete success to demonstrate to the world that the nation was united in restoring the rights of the people. In a statement here on Thursday, the PPP chairperson said the people of Pakistan had been enslaved by successive military rulers who exploited the army for their own narrow political ambitions.
She said each ruler seized power in the name of democracy and tried to create an authoritarian state.
“The regime’s policies were synonymous with horse trading, sham democracy, murder of free elections, a uniformed president, a rubber stamp parliament, a judiciary which was a shadow of itself following the sacking of half its members, an election commission that was unable to ensure free elections and the collapse of the rule of law,” she said.
Ms Bhutto said political parties were united on a simple agenda to protest the rigging in the local elections and to raise their voice for the masses suffering unemployment, inflation, crime and injustice due to the dictatorship.
She said President Musharraf’s policies were creating a crisis in the country, as more and more people were growing disenchanted with elections as a means of political change.
If the situation continued, the political parties would be forced to ask the United Nations or the Commonwealth to hold elections in the country to prevent violence becoming the only means of change, she said.
Noting that elements in the regime had publicly stated that protests were not conducive to stability, she said those elements should raise their voice to nullify the present local elections and address the grievances of the opposition stemming from the lack of credibility of the Musharraf regime.
Meanwhile, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif talked to the party Secretary-General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra on telephone and directed him to take every possible step to make the strike a success.
PBC: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) on Thursday announced that it would support the combined opposition’s strike call for Friday.
“Lawyers community would continue to struggle for the supremacy of the Constitution, restoration of true democracy, independence of judiciary and rule of law in the country,” PBC Vice Chairman Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari told reporters here at the Supreme Court building.
He asked lawyers and the bar associations to observe the strike on September 9 from 10am by holding protest meetings.
Mr Ansari asked the united opposition not to participate in the 2007 general elections, which would be held under the supervision of Gen Musharraf. He also sought appointment of a full-time chief election commissioner under whose supervision, new local government elections should be held as the recently conducted elections had been “rigged”.
Pakistan is passing through its worst constitutional and economic crisis because of the policies of Gen Pervez Musharraf, he alleged.
PBC neither recognizes Gen Musharraf as the chief of the army staff as he has been retired from the army nor accepts him as the president, Hafiz Ansari observed.
