ISLAMABAD, Oct 17: The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) has feared civil war in the country due to the wrong policies of the military regime.

Speaking at a news conference, the ARD president, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, and the PPP general secretary, Raja Pervez Ashraf, expressed their grave concern over the law and order situation in the country and held Gen Musharraf responsible for it.

“There is total anarchy in the country and no one is ready to take responsibility for any incident,” Mr Hashmi said while commenting on a recent incident in which a PML-N MNA Sahibzada Fazal Karim was harassed allegedly by agencies people near Faisalabad. He said Gen Musharraf had weakened all the institutions and this could lead the country towards a civil war.

Narrating the incident, Sahibzada Fazal Karim told the newsmen that he was on his way to Lahore from Faisalabad on October 15 in his car when a silver colour Honda car started chasing them. He said all the occupants of the car were armed with sophisticated modern weapons and signalled them to stop near Shahkot.

Mr Karim said his driver intelligently reversed the car and entered the city area of Shahkot thus saving him from a possible attack. He said the occupants of the car seemed to be trained people. The MNA said he had provided the suspected car’s number (IDK-4147) to the police but no action had so far been taken.

Mr Hashmi said three MNAs of his party had also been threatened by the agencies people that they could be killed in road accidents. He said he would disclose the names of these MNAs soon.

He regretted that no one from the government or the administration had inquired from the MNA about the incident. He condemned the incident and asked the government to take action against responsible people.

He said there was complete lawlessness in the country, as parliament was not sovereign and Gen Musharraf was trying to prolong his rule. He said the military regime had created a new dictionary in which they had their own definitions for democracy, corruption and terrorism. For example, he said, they had changed the meaning of the word “patriot”. “There was a time when everyone wanted to be called a patriot, but now it had become an abuse for everyone,” Mr Hashmi added.

He said Gen Musharraf was unhappy at the unity of the democratic forces and was bent upon breaking the political system. He said army was considered a disciplined institution all over the world. “How can army maintain discipline in other institutions of the country when its chief himself is violating the discipline,” he said.

Pervez Ashraf said Gen Musharraf was directly responsible for the poor law and order situation in the country. The PPP MNA said Gen Musharraf was only busy in undertaking foreign visits and had no time to monitor the law and order situation.

He regretted that today even journalists and legislators were not safe and they feared while travelling.

The ARD leaders also announced to move a privilege motion in the National Assembly on the incident. The ARD information secretary, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, and PML-N information secretary Siddiqul Farooq were also present on the occasion.