KARACHI, March 7: President of the Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party Mehmood Khan Achakzai has said that Pakistan can progress only when there is a true parliamentary and democratic government in the country with no political role to be played by the military and secret agencies.

Mr Achakzai, who is also vice-president of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (Ponam), was addressing a meeting of his party workers in Bilalabad, North Nazimabad. Pakistan is a multi-states country where people of different origins and different historical background live, he said.

"We are not against the army or secret agencies, but their responsibility is to defend the country's borders, therefore, they should not indulge in politics." He was of the view that people alone had right to rule the country as it was the public that created parliament and evolved a democratic system.

Referring to the pressing problems being faced by citizens, he remarked that the present unconstitutional, illegal and undemocratic government had brought only miseries to people who were facing great hardship due to price-hike, unemployment, poverty, etc., but the government, which appeared least bothered about their problems, was only interested in recovering taxes from them.

Mr Achakzai reiterated his stand that it was right of the population of every province to have full control of its resources. He said: "We want all Pakhtoon-dominated areas in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan to be merged to make a province that should be named as Pakhtoonkhwa, Afghania or Pakhtoonistan."

He declared that all Baloch, Pakhtoon, Sindhi and Seraiki people had now joined hands and decided not to live like slaves in more in Pakistan. He asked Pakhtoons to forge unity in their rank and files and fully participate in the struggle to attain their due rights. Others who spoke at the meeting were Akram Shah, Iqbal Khan, Saleem Khan Tareen and Haji Hakim Khan Mandokhel.