LAHORE: Enumerating a host of problems being faced by the country’s people, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi has questioned the existence of the federal government and asked whether “the silent majority should suffer, as me and my colleagues are suffering in jails”.

Mr Qureshi has asked these questions in a hand-written letter titled “Where is the federal government?”, provided to the media here on Monday.

Listing the agitations surfacing in different parts of the country, the former foreign minister says the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) was organising jirgas in the merged districts of erstwhile FATA, Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) was holding public meetings and dharnas at different locations in Balochistan, farmer organisations convening seminars calling for protests over water rights of Sindh, people in the riverine belt of South Punjab and upper Sindh complaining of abductions for ransom by organised criminal gangs and Punjabis mostly from south Punjab, after verification, were being killed in Balochistan.

Though the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC) on Sunday withdrew its call for the Jan 23 long march after the AJK government revoked a controversial ordinance, Mr Qureshi had written in his letter that the JKJAAC was protesting against the Presidential Ordinance and gathering at main entry points and planning to march on Muzaffarabad.

The incarcerated PTI leader lamented that educated and skilled young Pakistanis were desperately looking for opportunities to leave the country for greener pastures. He said the freelancers were worried after losing international clients. He lamented that established business houses were setting up offices in Dubai and elsewhere, as they are reluctant to invest in Pakistan.

Mr Qureshi said the farmers in Punjab were unsure of planting wheat, without announcement of a support price and a procurement plan of the government, with rising unemployment and poverty. “People of Pakistan are in need of a government to address these challenges instead of blaming the PTI government and its leadership,” he asserted.

He claimed that the economic challenges and structural issues the nation was confronted with today, did not surface in the four years of the PTI government. “Perhaps four decades of decline, neglect and mismanagement has brought us to this sad situation,” Mr Qureshi observed.

The PTI vice-chairman said the government’s legitimacy was being challenged by Pakistanis living here, as well as those sending billions of dollars through remittances from abroad, calling for fixing the situation.

“Is any non-partisan organisation willing to seek the opinion of ordinary citizens on the independence, impartiality and credibility of the Election Commission of Pakistan — an autonomous constitutional institution,” he asked. “Some of us are silently suffering in jails, should the silent majority suffer as well?” he asked.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2024