October 28, 2007	Sunday	Shawwal 15, 1428

HYDERABAD, Oct 27: Acting president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Makhdoom Javed Hashmi on Saturday predicted a hung parliament or coalition government and called for a lawyers’ tribunal under political parties’ supervision to oversee general elections, which he believed would not be free and fair under Gen Musharraf and the US monitoring.

Mr Hashmi said while addressing members of Hyderabad District Bar Association that the government should put trust in the civil society organisations instead of relying on foreign NGOs with regard to observation of election process.

He opposed the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) and urged political parties not to accept it. The lawyers had set an example for the leaders of political parties to follow and the events that took place between March 9 and July 20 had changed entirely the political scene in the country, he remarked.

He said that he would be happy to see that supremacy of Constitution was ensured instead of seeing Benazir Bhutto or Nawaz Sharif as premier. It was high time that the country was run in accordance with constitutional provisions, he urged.

Unless the relations between bar and bench were strengthened the country could neither attain supremacy of constitution nor security of judiciary, he said adding “there is no short cut to it.”

He said that politicians should be held accountable by their electorates and the bars and added that they did not favour anyone if politicians claimed that they had given sacrifices.

He said that politicians should follow lawyers who remained united on one point regardless of varying viewpoints on other issues. PML-N would not compromise on the supremacy of constitution and parliament nor would it become part of caretaker set-ups because the party had decided to prefer jails over these temptations, he stressed.

Mr Hashmi vowed to continue his struggle for democracy and constitution because the power politics had led to the country’s dismemberment. On 32 occasions directly and 28 occasions indirectly governments were run at gunpoint but people were more aware today than at any time in the country’s history, he said.

He lashed out at the government for pursuing American policies, which had resulted in engulfing the peaceful valley of Swat in gunfire. All this was happening under military rule, he added. Rulers themselves had admitted that 1,000 soldiers had so far been killed, he said. If it had happened under a civilian rule people would have seen how military reacted to it, he said.

If the PML was voted into power it would put old generals in the dock for the losses. “These people (rulers) will give a cover-up to their own wrongdoings by offering some concessions to political parties in the name of NRO,” he observed.

He saluted the soldiers who fight on borders and reach out to flood affected people but not those who held people at gunpoint. Elections under Gen Musharraf would not be free and fair. “We need to rely on our own civil society instead of foreign NGOs,” he said.

He said that Pakistani nation, not the leadership, was fighting the challenges. Whenever the political leadership attained maturity it had been either been hanged or forced into exile, he said and added that only a democratic process could kill feudalism otherwise there was no other way out.

Talking to journalists after the address, Mr Hashmi supported Benazir Bhutto’s demand for involving foreign experts in the investigations into Oct 18 bomb blasts and said that there was no harm if the services of these experts were hired.

He disagreed with the notion that it would be tantamount to an intervention in the internal affairs. “We obtain the experts’ services in other fields as well so it’s not improper if they are invited,” he said.

It was a breach of trust if Benazir Bhutto, as per general perception, was siding with Pervez Musharraf, he said.