February 10, 2007	Saturday	Muharram 21, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 9: Chief of Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and MNA Mehmood Khan Achakzai has said that Balochis, Sindhis, Pashtoons and Seraikis do not want to live in Pakistan as “second or third degree citizens” and want their share in governance in their respective provinces.

“We do not want to break this country, but want share in governance, which is our right. We want control on our resources. We want our languages to be the medium of instruction,” Mr Achakzai said while speaking at a seminar on “Suitability of elections under a serving general and credibility of elections without participation of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif” organized by the Foreign Liaison Committee (FLC) of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) here on Friday.

Mr Achakzai strongly opposed the role of military, bureaucracy and intelligence agencies in politics and said, “We are in the fourth martial law, which has completed the strategy of generals’ rule in the country.”

He said it was strange that a person drawing salary in grade-22 was acting like a king. He asked the PPP and the PML-N, the two major political parties of the country, to rid the country of the generals to make Pakistan a prosperous country.

Information Secretary of PML-N Ahsan Iqbal said that the future of democracy in Pakistan depended on the role and conduct of opposition parties in the next general elections.

Criticizing the US for supporting Gen Musharraf, the PML-N leader said no military dictator could have survived in Pakistan without the unqualified support of the super power.

Mr Iqbal was of the view that they could not resolve the issue by organizing seminars in five-star hotels or through drawing room chatter clubs.

“We will have to go to the people of Pakistan to challenge the generals in streets,” he added. He paid rich tributes to the jailed ARD leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi for upholding the flag of democracy. He said Pakistan deserved non-controversial elections.

Opposition leader in the Senate Raza Rabbani said the purpose of the seminar was not to seek any help from the international community. He said this was a battle which would have to be fought by the people and political parties of Pakistan.

He said they were told by the international community that the local government elections would be a litmus test for the next general elections. “If LG polls were the litmus test, then God knows what will happen in the 2007 election,” he added. PPP President Makhdoom Amin Fahim said all the four dictators introduced their own laws and rules in the country to perpetuate their rule. He said the pre-poll rigging had already started.

He said Gen Musharraf was openly supporting the King’s Party. He said the nation knew that the Musharraf regime was expert in rigging the elections.

PPP Punjab Information Secretary Farzana Raja said that that there was a popular quote that worst democracy was better than the best dictatorship. She said the people had lost interest and confidence in political system.

Columnist Ayaz Amir said the III Brigade of the 10 Corps was actually the `constitutional brigade’ of Pakistan Army. He said all the elections in the country were either held directly under the serving military men or under the watchful eyes of the intelligence agencies. He regretted that the Punjab had always assisted the military dictators.