KARACHI: Speakers at ‘G.M. Syed Peace Conference’ held here on Sunday called for an end to ‘controlled’ democracy in the country and demanded transformation of Pakistan into a truly federal and democratic state where all provinces could enjoy complete autonomy.

“Only true representative governments elected through transparent polls will be able to eliminate corruption and bad governance and serve the masses by raising their standard of living and ensuring their participation in government affairs,” said a resolution unanimously passed by the audience which filled backyard of the Karachi Press Club.

The moot organised by the Sindh United Party (SUP) to mark the 20th death anniversary of the prominent nationalist leader called for bringing an end to the so-called controlled democracy and underlined the need for holding free and fair elections to introduce a transparent political system in the country and enable true public representatives to make laws at the national and provincial legislatures for resolving issues of the common man.

Through another resolution, the gathering called for separating religion from the state and stressed that it was imperative to resist religious extremism that had weakened the very foundations of the country.

“All the citizens should have equal rights without discrimination of colour, caste, creed, gender and religion. There must be a total end to violence, terrorism and use of force in politics,” it said.

Speakers at the moot criticised what they termed continued supremacy of a bunch of influential families over the political landscape of the country who patronised corruption and nepotism. They called for discouraging their imperial style of ruling the country.

The conference called for a flawless accountability system and suggested ways to bring about transparency in appointing head of the National Accountability Bureau who should be free from the influence of the federal and provincial governments.

The conference called upon the politicians and the masses to get united for the elimination of corruption from politics and election of clean and spotless leadership.

Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah said the vested interests through their continuous and illegitimate rule over the country had been legitimising their misdeeds, personal whims and thinking.

“The country needed a constitution, law and wisdom to run the affairs but instead anti-India sentiments were fuelled and made the basis for running the country. And for that purpose, terms like ‘state and its national interests’ and ‘an Islamic state supreme to national frontiers’ were coined,” he said, adding it was exactly what the late Syed had predicted in his historic address to the World Peace Conference held in Vienna in 1952.

Mr Shah said the ruling elite were not prepared to recognise the geographical boundaries of historic nations and instead of protecting geographical frontiers of the country and the historic states existing within it, talked of defending the ideological frontiers.

He said the country, since the day of its inception, was being run under a unitary system of governance aimed at strengthening the centre, trampling over the geographical frontiers of the provinces and weakening the provincial system of the government.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2015

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