MULTAN, Aug 5: At least 7,500 workers of the PML-N have to undergo imprisonment for demanding democratic rule during the last almost four years.

This was claimed by PML-N acting president MNA Makhdoom Javed Hashmi while talking at the ‘Guftagu’ programme of the Multan Press Club on Tuesday.

He said his party had been holding the flag of democracy in the country in the face of worst kind of dictatorship.

He said the foundations of the present regime were so weak that its leaders felt threatened even from the apolitical members of the Sharif family.

Criticizing the leadership of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal in a somehow mild tone, Mr Hashmi said he was at loss to understand how they would give five more years (to remain in power) to the general who had been instrumental in 18,000 air attacks on Afghanistan. He alleged that Musharraf was not only lobbying to accept Israel but he was about to take a U-turn on the Kashmir issue.

He said PML-N would resist sending troupes to Iraq under American administration. He said his party did not want to see the Pak army assuming the clout of ‘hired soldiers’. He said it was the top brass of the army which was giving bad name to the respected institution by “blindly following” the US.

Tracing history of the tussles between the generals and the elected governments, he said none of the C-in-Cs had ever showed respect to the will of people from Gen Gracy to Gen Musharraf. He said Gracy had refused Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah to send troops to Kashmir while Musharraf had abrogated the constitution to topple an elected government.

He demanded that “all the military dictators whether dead or alive be tried for usurping the power at gunpoint. This is necessary if we want to give our children a democratic Pakistan,” he stressed.

Mr Hashmi said the army was not doing the nation a favour by safeguarding the country’s frontiers because they were the “most facilitated and pampered soldiers” in the world.

Coming hard on the economic policies of the government, he said the country had slipped to 144th position in the league of nations viz-a-viz the state of economic indicators, such as, per capita income, housing facility, healthcare and availability of safe drinking water.