PESHAWAR: The leaders of various political parties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have expressed mixed reaction to the police action against the protesters of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek and mediapersons in Islamabad on Saturday night and Sunday and called for resolution of the issues through negotiations under the Constitution to save democracy in the country.

Pakistan People’s Party, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, president Khanzada Khan condemned the police action against mediapersons and described the violence on journalists as state terrorism.

In a statement on Sunday, the PPP leader said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was bound to take action against all those involved in the plan to target the mediapersons, saying that journalists had always played effective role in strengthening of democracy and none of the governments had the right to subject them to violence.

He said that it was time that both the sides should think seriously and take positive steps to bring an end to chaos in the country.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz central senior vice-president Amir Muqam, who is also adviser to the prime minister, said that the government was ready to redress the reservations of Imran Khan about the elections under the judicial commission. He alleged that the PTI chief was bent on derailing the democratic system.

“The government has initiated countless development schemes to bring Pakistan at par with rest of the developed countries, but the two parties – PTI and PAT – were hatching conspiracies to stop the progress so that they could impose their own agenda,” he said.

Mr Muqam said that the two protesting parties had paralysed the entire system of the country, causing immense loss to the national economy and mental agony to the nation. He asked Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri to wait till completion of the government’s tenure because the poor people would get nothing out of their sit-ins.

Awami National Party’s provincial secretary information MPA Sardar Hussain Babak told Dawn that there was no logic to march on Islamabad and announce civil disobedience. He said that the demand for resignation of prime minister was beyond his imagination. He said that Imran’s own party people had defied his decision to resign then how the elected prime minister would step down.

“We condemn the violence on mediapersons by police and urge the government and the protesting parties to resolve their issues under the framework of Constitution,” he said, adding that the protest demonstrations and sit-ins said had badly affected the country’s economy and brought a bad name to the country at international level. He also advised Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to avoid wasting time in sit-ins and fulfill his responsibilities by serving the people of his province.

“Had we raised such demands the people would have dubbed us traitors by now but no one bothered to register sedition case against Imran for the civil disobedience,” he said.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa PML-Q president Intikhab Chamkani came down hard on the government for what he described as state terrorism against peaceful protesters and said that the nation was not ready to accept Nawaz Sharif as prime minister any longer.

“The best solution to the prevailing situation is the resignation of prime minister, formation of national government, elections reforms and holding of fresh polls in the country to bring an end to the power games and the menace of rigging,” he suggested. “I myself have witnessed the brutal use of police force against the women, children and media and ask for registration of FIRs against the people involved in the violence,” Mr Chamkani said.

Qaumi Watan Party’s parliamentary leader in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Sikandar Hayat Sherpao regretted that the provincial government had left masses helpless for the last two weeks. He continued that practically there was no government in the province. He deplored that the KP government was misusing the official resources on aimless sit-ins while the vital issues of province had been put on the backburner.

He said that the PTI government had ignored the problems of the province for the sake of unconstitutional sit-in in capital.

Mr Sherpao observed that those raising slogan for change had further aggravated the problems of the people but they had no option to get their issues resolved.

He said that the irresponsible attitude of PTI to the political instability, financial degradation and social unrest had further heightened the backwardness of the province. The QWP leader said that the sit-in had put the democracy and Constitution in jeopardy. He said that his party had been supporting the cause of democracy and it would play its role for strengthening the democratic institutions.

He asked the federal government to resolve the current crisis through dialogue. He expressed concern over the violence in Islamabad and showed sympathy with the injured people.

Dir Welfare Organisation leader Amir Mohammad Khan condemned the violence on journalists and urged the government to enforce Islamic system in the country to overcome the longstanding problems.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2014