LAHORE: Awami National Party leader Ghulam Ahmad Bilour has termed it a big mistake of the political parties that convinced the government to allow Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri to march on Islamabad and hold sit-ins there.
“Both Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri are playing the roles of Tarzan and Robin Hood, respectively. They want to topple the government by hook or by crook. The government is already aware of their unconstitutional and anti-democratic designs and the political parties that forced the government to allow their marches on Islamabad were at fault as the situation is getting out of control,” Mr Bilour said while talking to Dawn on a telephone call on Sunday.
When asked about the other options the government could take, the ANP leader said the issue should have been tackled administratively by arresting senior leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek.
To the question that how a democratic government could arrest PTI or PAT leaders or ban their entry to Islamabad, Bilour said when everyone already knew about vested interest of the two parties, it was better to restrict their entry.
“I am of the view that no political party should be allowed to hold any sort of demonstration in the federal capital as it could be staged in Lahore, Karachi and other mega cities,” he added.
The ANP leader said if the PTI or PAT succeeded in toppling a democratic government through unconstitutional ways, it would encourage any party or group to use Islamabad for staging illegal protest to oust premiers or do anything bad in the future. He rejected the impression that establishment was behind the prevailing political crisis.
“The PTI never discussed its demands in the parliament. It never tried to take the opposition parties on board and had it taken the opposition parties into confidence, it would have succeeded in getting their support. Now the it is isolated. And the PAT too was alone without support of political parties,” he said.
About the PTI’s allegations of election rigging, Mr Bilour said the ANP had accepted its defeat wholeheartedly, keeping in view results of the general elections despite the fact it knew about rigging in various constituencies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. But it didn’t think of even to protest, considering the mandate, whether wrong or right, given by the KP voters to the PTI. Bilour said he had been in politics for the last 45 years but he never saw such style of politics as was being done by the PTI and PAT. He advised the political forces to come forward and take up the issue seriously.
“My party and I strongly condemn the unlawful and unconstitutional demands of the PTI and PAT and it is need of the hour to defuse the tension amicably through bringing these parties on the table for talks by any means,” Bilour concluded.
Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2014
