ISLAMABAD, Sept 11: Admitting their failure to mobilise the people and prevent the deportation of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia, leaders of the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) on Monday announced that they would launch a countrywide movement to get rid of the military dictatorship and restore genuine democracy in the country.
The said at a press conference that after the Supreme Court’s Aug 23 verdict allowing unhindered return of the Sharif brothers to the country and Gen Musharraf’s assurance that the ruling would be honoured, no opposition leader could even think of the action taken by the authorities to deport the PML-N chief to Saudi Arabia.
They warned that the government should avoid forcing the people to take up arms. They also rejected official claims that Mr Sharif had opted to return to Saudi Arabia, rather than face court cases.
The news conference was not attended by some of frontline leader of the alliance. Raja Zafarul Haq and Javed Hashmi of the PML-N and MMA’s president Qazi Hussain Ahmed are under house arrest while Maulana Fazlur Rehman has gone to Saudi Arabia to perform Umra.
Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan, Awami National Party’s Zahid Khan, PML-N leader Mushahidullah Khan and Saad Rafiq, Senator Abdur Rahim Mandokhel, MMA’s Maulana Shah Abdul Aziz and Mian Mohammad Aslam, MNAs and leaders of other component parties were present at the news conference.
Mehmood Achakzai said the way the former prime minister humiliated by agency personnel and sent back to Saudi Arabia had exposed the real face of the government.
He regretted that a brotherly country’s intelligence chief had tried to undermine Pakistan’s higher judiciary by saying that the agreement under which Nawaz Nawaz had left the country had been signed before the Supreme Court’s verdict allowing the former premier to return.
Mr Achakzai said that no one had the right to send any citizen out of the country against his will and under section 360 PPC anyone doing so could be charged with abduction and imprisoned for up to 10 years.
“We appeal to the people of Pakistan, including lawyers, members of civil society, political workers and the media, to stand up and launch a decisive movement against tyrannical rulers who have no respect for citizens,” he said, adding: “We are democratic people and struggling for a peaceful democratic system.”
He warned police and magistracy against obeying unconstitutional orders of the rulers. “We also appeal to the armed forces to allow the democratic system to flourish in the country.”
The PMAP leader strongly condemned the massive gathering of MQM workers at the Sindh High Court during the May 12 case hearing and said that it was a criminal act to pressurise the judiciary.
Imran Khan said that rights of the people could not be protected in the presence of tyrannical rulers, adding that what happened at the SHC was enough to prove that the MQM was a terrorist organisation.
He said the world media was stunned by the treatment meted out to the former prime minister and added that Gen Musharraf had put the judiciary to disrespect.
