LAHORE, Nov 19: Religious scholar and Tanzeem-i-Islami founder Dr Israr Ahmad has called for lifting the emergency, reinstatement of superior court judges and withdrawal of all actions taken in pursuance of the proclamation of emergency and Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) besides resignation of Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club here on Monday, Dr Israr urged General Pervez Musharraf to call it a day and resign from both president of Pakistan and chief of army staff slots if he earnestly believed in his own slogan ‘Pakistan first’ after accepting the demands of people from within Pakistan and abroad. Gen Musharraf should not keep his personal interest above the national interests, Dr Israr added.

He also called upon opposition political parties to ensure that their proposed movement for the restoration of democracy remains peaceful and they should themselves hand over to the government saboteurs disrupting their movement.

He said that they should call off their movement for the sake of national security and Pakistan’s survival if they felt it was beyond their control to keep it peaceful.

He quoted the example of calling off a movement launched by the late Indian prime minister, Indira Gandhi, when the agitated people had burnt down a police station in an Indian town of Chura Churi in which policemen were also burnt.

He said that Pakistan was facing threats from both eastern and western borders due to internal disturbance started after March 9 when Gen Musharraf had suspended deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. It led to a people’s movement and protest against the military rule identical to the PNA’s movement of 1977.

“If the situation worsens, the NATO forces are waiting on the western front to move into Pakistan and may deprive the country of its nuclear assets while on the eastern border India is ready to stage an action replay of 1971 events and has alerted its armed forces to intervene in to check threats to peace in the region.”

Dr Israr expressed his concern over yet another equally dangerous situation caused by what he described as “polarisation between extreme forces of secularism and the people demanding enforcement of Islamic Shariah in the country”. The situation he said, had taken an alarming proportion in the tribal areas, particularly in the areas north of Malakand and in Swat.

He said that it was not possible to suppress the movement by use of military force. The only way to solve the problem was to take Constitutional, legal and evolutionary measures for the enforcement of Islamic Shariah. For this purpose, he suggested making Article 2-A of the Constitution relating to the Objectives Resolution as overriding article and the parliament should take steps to make laws as recommended by the Council of Islamic Ideology in its voluminous reports lying in shelves of the government departments for the past many years.