ISLAMABAD, Dec 10: The Pakistan Muslim League (Q) unveiled its election manifesto on Monday, which focuses on five Ds — democracy, development, devolution, diversity and defence.

Addressing a news conference, PML (Q) president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and secretary-general Mushahid Hussain Sayed claimed that their party had chosen December 10 for launching the PML manifesto because it was the International Human Rights Day and it wanted to reaffirm its commitment to human rights as a major policy priority.

They said the party would never support the presidential form of government.

They said the PML (Q) government had done good work of devolving powers from provinces to the district and local levels but much needed to be done about transferring powers from the centre to the provinces. They claimed to have initiated the process for provincial autonomy

The manifesto proposes a task force for examining the causes of extremism and enunciates the party’s position on issues like Kashmir, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Iran’s nuclear programme. The party “recognises the APHC (All Parties Hurriyet Conference) as a representative of the oppressed Kashmiri people and will continue to pursue a policy of peaceful resolution of the issues of Kashmir, Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq”.

“If the party comes to power again it will introduce a ‘cycle culture’ to bring down traffic congestion as well as the conveyance cost,” Mushahid Hussain said.

The PML (Q), he said, believed that political parties could find a more effective solution to the problem of terrorism by using means other than the military might.

The PML (Q) leaders, however, avoided giving direct answers to questions about the detention of nuclear scientist Dr A. Q. Khan, the sacking of and putting under house arrest over 60 judges of the superior judiciary and the suspension of human rights since November 3.

Chaudhry Shujaat simply said that Dr Khan was not under house arrest and Mr Hussain remarked: “Chaudhry Shujaat has been meeting him”.

The manifesto highlights the mottos of “Live and let live” and “Giving hope to the hopeless”.

Chaudhry Shujaat claimed that his party had opposed and would always oppose any attempt to undermine the ideology of the country.

The manifesto rules out “allowing any intrusion into country’s nuclear programme or providing access to any of its nuclear installations and scientists to outsiders”.

The manifesto calls for a constitutional amendment to allow representation of overseas Pakistanis in parliament.

It calls for the Foreign Office to be more ‘people-friendly’.

Some of the salient features of the manifesto are as follows:

-- To promote a democratic political culture within the party and within the country, end family cult from the party leadership, acknowledge the role of opposition in a democratic set-up, provide a healing touch to end the problems in Fata and develop a culture of conciliation and reject the ‘culture of revenge’.

-- To give top priority to education, including a mass literacy programme and modernisation of madressah education, introduce medical insurance, mass transit system, clean drinking water, food safety, neutral accountability bureau, village development initiative, a state-supported skills promotion trust and easily available small loans for people with skills.

-- To empower women, promote Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah as a role model, ensure participation of women in national development, provide opportunities to youths at home and abroad, give special facilities to senior citizens, ensure rights of the disabled by setting up a new ministry, protect prisoners’ rights and eliminate bonded labour, cater to the needs of orphans and children and promote arts and culture.