LAHORE: Awami Workers Party (AWP) President Abid Hassan Minto says the party wants supremacy of civilian institutions and it opposes military courts.

“If these courts are designed to only deliver punishments without due process as seems to be the case, then simply punish them (the accused). Why create military courts?” he asked addressing the central executive of the party here on Monday Mr Minto said the people were yearning for justice at almost every level but the PTI government had lost its direction and was clueless how to deliver justice to the people.

AWP Secretary General Akhtar Hussain was of the view that creeping militarisation of the civilian institutions was not acceptable.

“The appointments and reappointments of the army personnel in the institutions of civilian nature should be stopped and they must be reduced to the areas of defence and security, rather than interior and foreign policies. These areas must be left to those who know them,” he advised.

Yusuf Masti Khan, presiding over the meeting, demanded that the military operation in Balochistan and other areas must be stopped forthwith and so should be so-called anti-encroachment operation in Karachi as people were being thrown out of their homes and businesses.

“The courts cannot ignore human dimension of their decisions. Wealthy mafias are grabbing lands around Karachi and creating housing schemes. Instead of stopping them, the poor are suffering the brunt of the law,” he insisted.

Secretary General Farooq Tariq condemned, what he called, implementation of neoliberal agenda in the country.

“Labour unions in the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and other organisations have been banned. The private sector, pampered by the successive governments, is being facilitated again in the name of reforms. The government is preparing to hand over these organisations to the capitalists in the country. In the name of increasing exports, rupee is devalued by 35pc, opening flood gates of price hike. The government should now increase salary of labourers accordingly,” he said.

Mr Tariq said the AWP would oppose removal of 18th Amendment and resist every conspiracy to end it. Similarly, the party also opposed new restrictions on the media and throwing journalists out of jobs while it was launching movement for saving workers by holding rallies in all major cities of the country, he declared.

The meeting also demanded that visa-on-arrival facility should also be extended to all immediate neighbours for strengthening regional ties.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2019