LAHORE, March 26: On the second day of its brain-storming session in London on Sunday, the PML-N central working committee decided to step up its struggle for democracy in cooperation with other opposition parties, including the PPP and the MMA.
According to reports reaching here, Mian Nawaz Sharif, who presided over the meeting of party leaders from all over the country, said Gen Musharraf was left with no option but to go.
Calling for fresh elections under the supervision of an interim government to be installed in consultation with all political parties, the former prime minister said the country could not afford another rigged election. He said elections could not be called free and fair if the “main players” were kept out of the process.
“If will of the people is not respected, it can have disastrous consequences for the country. Therefore, we’ll not let the present rulers to rig national elections.”
Mr Sharif said: “Now Musharraf will have to quit and the country will have to return to democratic and constitutional governance”.
The participants reiterated their commitment to restore the Constitution to its pre-1999 form. To achieve the target, they said, the party should get enough seats in parliament to do away with the 17th amendment which, in their opinion, had disfigured the Constitution.
The option of forming an electoral alliance with other parties was also kept open.
The participants spoke about the situation in the country and the strategy the party should follow. They said the exiled leadership should try to return to Pakistan before the elections. Mr Sharif told them that he would “soon” return to the country.
The PML leader said time had come to rid the nation of military dictatorship forever and establish supremacy of the Constitution.
He strongly criticized what he termed as misrule of the past six years and said it had undermined the country’s honour, dignity and sovereignty.
He said rising prices, unemployment, poverty and lawlessness were on rise while national institutions had been destroyed. He said the country did not have a Kashmir policy. Military action was going on in Balochistan and tribal areas because of which the federation was facing a serious threat.
Gen Musharaf, he said, had imposed a culture of “horse-trading and corruption”, and was empowering turncoats and opportunists as a result of which the democratic foundations of the country had been shaken.
He said that the Muslim League, being the founder of the country, had a greater role to play at this juncture. “If we succeed in putting the country back on the constitutional and democratic track, the federation will have a bright future. But if we fail, the country could face a serious crisis.”
He said patriotism demanded that supremacy of the Constitution should be respected and those who had violated the basic law should be held accountable.
“Violating the Constitution and imprisoning those who had defended it was not patriotism, but treason,” he added.
Meanwhile, PPP president Makhdoom Ameen Fahim and some other leaders will fly to London in a few days where they will meet the PML-N leadership to chalk out a joint line of action.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the PPP in Dubai which was chaired by Benazir Bhutto.
