LAHORE, March 18: Former governor Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar has said the Punjab can save the federation by raising the voice of the smaller provinces. He was speaking at a seminar on ‘Re-examining Federalism in Pakistan’ held at a hotel here on Saturday by an NGO, Liberal Forum, in collaboration with a German institution, Friedrich Naumann Stiftung.

Other speakers were PML-N MNA Tehmina Daultana, ruling party MNA Kashmala Tariq, forum chairman Asif Khan Asif, journalist Imtiaz Gul from Islamabad and FNS resident representative Peter Andrias Bochmann. Federal minister Faisal Saleh Hayat and Senator Kamil Ali Agha were invited to present the government point of view but they did not turn up.

Mr Khar criticised the government and said the people of smaller provinces had genuine grievances which should be redressed but the government was using force to suppress their voice. The federation of Pakistan was in serious danger because of the provincial disharmony.

“It is time that Punjab should give sacrifice and save the federation by representing the smaller provinces before the government,” he maintained.

He said the Punjab had not usurped the rights of any province but its only sin was that it had not been protesting against the arbitrary decisions and actions of the government and keeping silence.

He suggested that since general elections were due within a year and a half, the government should not take any measure against the interests of the federation.

He said the government should take the opposition parties into confidence for holding the next elections in free and fair manner.

Warning that the situation in Balochistan was explosive, Mr Khar said it should be tackled tactfully by taking the people into confidence. “It is wrong that only three Baloch Sardars are behind the insurgency, but the fact is that they have the support of entire Baloch community.”

Comparing the situation with the one that prevailed in former East Pakistan before its separation, he said the then federal government had been saying that only Shaikh Mujibur Rahman was against Pakistan while he had the support of the people. Similarly, the present government was singling out a few Baloch Sardars for the prevailing situation, he added.

He said if the situation was not controlled there was a possibility of foreign intervention forcing the people to migration as happened in former East Pakistan. That would cause a great problem for Pakistan and it would find no way out.

Referring to the Kalabagh dam controversy, Mr Khar said he had been an ardent supporter of the project during the reign of Benazir Bhutto. At that time there was not as much opposition to the project as it was now and it was not proper for Gen Musharraf to announce his decision of building the dam without taking the people into confidence. Even his own people from Sindh and the NWFP, in federal and provincial cabinets and assemblies were opposing it.

Severely criticising the government, MNA Tehmina Daultana said the federation was in great political crisis that was posing a threat to its very existence.

She said there was no democracy in the country which was being ruled by the military. The prime ministers were selected by the president for the periods fixed by him. A prime minister was selected for 40 days only while the present one was nominated for the slot even before his election, which was later manoeuvred. Even the assembly members were selected and elected at his pleasure. The entire system of governance had collapsed.