LAHORE, Aug 31: Federal Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani on Thursday warned the opposition to ‘stop pursuing negative politics’ or get ready to face the music. “They will become irrelevant for Pakistani politics if they continue to follow the tactics of strikes, boycotts and movements,” he told a news conference.
Condemning the opposition’s boycott of the National Assembly proceedings, he urged the opposition to “stop pursuing negative politics, otherwise the government would make people take to roads against it.”
The minister said the body of Nawab Akbar Bugti would be allowed to be buried according to tribal traditions.
He denied reports which said President Pervez Musharraf had congratulated (the law-enforcement agencies) after the completion of the operation against Mr Bugti, and said normalcy was being restored in Balochistan.
The minister said the opposition wanted to ‘hoodwink the people and itself’ by observing the Friday strike because it was already a weekly holiday in the markets of all but four cities in the country, including Lahore and Karachi.
“There will be no strike in these two major cities to the utter embarrassment of the opposition.”
Mr Durrani said when in power, the opposition tended to loot national resources and when not, it attempted to snatch bread from people by repeatedly observing ‘unnecessary’ strikes. The opposition was giving strike calls or announcing movements against the government every couple of months and by doing so it wanted to hamper the country’s progress. That was why people would reject them.
He said that after learning a lesson from the failure of its no-confidence motion, the opposition should not have given the strike call in the first place. It ‘must remember’ that change would now be brought about only by people’s votes and all back doors of conspiracies had been closed. It should work for ‘free and fair’ elections which the government would ensure at any cost.
After the failure of its strike, the opposition ‘must explain to the people’ why it was boycotting assemblies and indulging in negative politics. People, he said, would take it to the task if it failed to change its strategy. The minister said that they (the people) would now take to the roads only to condemn those who were blocking progress of the country.
The minister said PPP leader Amin Fahim should not resign from the National Assembly. “The no-confidence motion’s defeat was not a defeat of the opposition. In fact, it is the defeat of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif” who, according to him, had spent millions of rupees to move the motion from abroad without assessing ground realities. In fact, he said, Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif should quit from their parties’ leadership. Otherwise the partymen would ‘one day ask them to quit’.
He said it was unconstitutional on the part of the opposition leaders to keep resignations of their parties’ parliamentarians with them. Under the constitution these resignations could only be submitted to the national assembly speaker or senate chairman.
The opposition leaders sitting abroad had asked their members to submit their resignations to them a night before the presentation of the no confidence motion which many resisted.
He regretted that the opposition had announced a two-day boycott of the national assembly earlier in the day.
BALOCHISTAN: Replying to questions Mr Durrani said Balochistan was not ‘on fire’ and normalcy was being restored there. Attempts, he said, were normally made to politically exploit every situation. The opponents of yesteryears were now trying to exploit the killing of Nawab Bugti.
Mr Durrani said several attempts had been made by different forces to create unrest in smaller provinces. But the parties having positive attitude towards Pakistan and its integrity had always won elections there. Pakistani nationalism had been the dominant factor there, he said.
He reiterated that Nawab Bugti’s killing was not targeted. The government had already given its viewpoint on the issue and had ‘even’ taken journalists to the spot on Wednesday to allow them to see for themselves. “You can also go there for the purpose,” he said.
The minister said the government had given ‘all facts’ about the killing of Nawab Bugti to the nation through media and there was ‘no contradiction’. “One cannot hide reality these days,” he said, adding there was no evidence that the president had congratulated anyone over the issue.
Replying to a question if Nawab Bugti’s sons of would face any operation, he said the government was not moving against anyone. It was taking action against people who were violating law, killing innocent people, exploding bombs and destroying railway tracks and gas pipelines.
“The state is bound to protect its people. Don’t the personnel of law enforcement agencies deserve sympathy if they are killed in the line of duty? Don’t they have families and children?” he asked.
When asked if conditions in Balochistan were different from that which led to the fall of Dhaka, he said the government would not commit any crime there. “It is our utmost desire that all those who were mislead must now start serving the country within the ambit of law,” he said.
The minister said the government had not taken action against any private television channel.
