ISLAMABAD: Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq has categorically stated that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will not resign under pressure.

In a brief chat with a group of journalists here on Tuesday, he expressed fears about a military takeover and said the chaos created by the marchers was unwarranted. He said Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan had himself closed all doors for reconciliation.

Khawaja Rafiq said he had even offered his resignation to satiate the thirst of protesters but this did not work.

Earlier speaking in the Senate, Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq described the PTI’s Azadi and Pakistan Awami Tehreek’s Inqilab marches as a ploy to prevent the trial of former military ruler retired Gen Pervez Musharraf under high treason.

He said the opposition had played a positive democratic role. According to him, the PTI had initially demanded verification of voters’ thumbprints in four constituencies but later extended it to 10.

Mr Haq said the government was ready even for that but a new demand for the audit of entire elections had been made.

He said the government had announced the constitution of a commission under the Supreme Court to investigate the allegations of rigging in last year’s general elections and formed a parliamentary committee on electoral reforms with PTI representation in it, but Imran Khan had refused to accept the elected assemblies and also closed the doors for talks. “He (the PTI chief) is not even taking calls of Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Ahmed Shah,” he added.

PPP leader Mian Raza Rabbani warned that democratic institutions were under serious threat and said the unity of democratic forces was the only way to save democracy. All members of parliament are in favour of democracy.

He said that despite negligence of the government, the opposition wanted supremacy of constitutional institutions and democracy, adding that the opposition would strongly resist any move to derail democracy.

Rafiq Rajwana of the PML-N said it was not appropriate to gather people and adopt the path of violence to get ‘unconstitutional’ demands accepted. He said people who had won the elections had the right to defence, adding that Mr Khan’s call for civil disobedience was unconstitutional.

Kulsoom Parveen of the BNP-A was of the opinion that the PML-N government had delayed action to avert the crisis. She said the prime minister himself should have gone to the protesting leaders to persuade them to review their policy and promised to address their concerns and grievances.

Abdul Haseeb Khan of the MQM said the leader of his party, Altaf Hussain, had tried his best to politically resolve the crisis. Other opposition parties are also making efforts. “The assemblies should not be dissolved and democracy should not be derailed,” he said.

The Senate will meet again on Friday.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2014