LARKANA, Sept 25: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan has said that political parties interested in restoration of genuine democracy in the country should join a grand alliance and launch a collective movement to oust Gen Musharraf.
Speaking at a press conference with Sindh National Front (SNF) Chairman Mumtaz Ali Bhutto on Sunday, he urged the parties to quit the assemblies and launch a civil disobedience movement for free and fair elections under an independent election commission.
The parties which desire to bring in genuine democracy must launch a movement before general elections, he urged. He said that some vested interests were out to thwart efforts for forming the grand alliance.
Only provincial autonomy could guarantee the survival of the country and the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti had made the issue even more urgent, he remarked.
“Our concern now is to forge a grand alliance to fight for real democracy. Mumtaz Bhutto and I will talk to all the parties that want a genuine democracy to flourish, and prepare them to launch a movement,” he said.
The PTI chief said that some opposition parties were indulged in ‘Noora Kushti’, a fact which would come to fore within a couple of months.
He was of the view that the provinces should be given more autonomy than was awarded by the 1973 constitution because the constitution itself was not a final document and the parliament could review it.
Mr Khan laid stress on the “change of system” and called the prevailing one “a colonization system”. The NFC award should be given according to level of poverty and resources and not according to population, he said adding that the provinces’ resources should be used for the well-being of its people.
Calling Bugti’s murder extra-judicial killing, he said that Nawab Bugti was not an insurgent he just raised voice for resolving peoples’ problems and provincial autonomy and paid the price with his life.
He ruled out the possibility of free and just elections under Musharraf regime and said the coterie who was sitting with Gen Musharraf used to frequent Gen Zia. “We don’t believe in Gen Musharraf as he speaks one thing and means another.”
He demanded a free election commission under an impartial caretaker government to ensure real representatives of people go to the assemblies and not those picked by ‘agencies’.
One of the greatest harms the military government had done the country was the fakes sitting it the assemblies, he said.
He said that the decision to divide the Punjab into more provinces should be taken by assemblies. He condemned torturing and kidnapping journalists and political workers and saw ulterior motives behind such incidents.
