LAHORE, Aug 11: Alienation of people from the political process is a reaction to political parties dissociation from their problems during the past 10 years.

This was the unanimous view of participants in a Human Rights Commission of Pakistan “Consultation on democratic values: obligations of political parties”, here on Sunday.

They asked the political parties to play their role in strengthening the democratic culture in the country. They called upon political leaders to give up the practice of making confessions of their weaknesses and failures in solving public problems and try to make amends by coming to the rescue of the troubled masses instead.

They were also of the unanimous view that no individual had any right to amend the constitution to suit his whims and resolved to resist all attempts aimed at usurping the right of self-determination of the people and depriving the nation of the civil rule.

HRCP Director IA Rehman said in his introductory remarks that the participants of the national level consultation held in May were of the view that an independent election commission should hold the general elections under a caretaker government and amendments to the constitution should be left to the representative assembly.

He said the number of articles included in the constitutional amendments announced by the government were tantamount to taking liberty with the word (amendments) and giving something more than a new constitution. He said that a majority of the people had alienated itself from the political process and the political parties were being accused of deviation from the path of democracy. Moreover, the army was not willing to give the right to rule to any party coming into party after the general elections.

The graduation condition for contesting assembly elections had also bee introduced for perpetuating army rule.

He said the elections were being conducted in violation of the democratic traditions and the government had not been opposed so unanimously on any constitutional issue as this one eversince the creation of Pakistan.

Former PU professor Dr Mehdi Hassan said the army had always taken advantage of the weaknesses of the political parties. In fact, only the armed forces fulfilled the conditions laid down in the definition of a political party the world over.

He said the people had been alienated from the political process because the political parties had stopped giving programmes for the solution to their problems and had concentrated their attention on their opponents instead. He said that resurgence of religious extremism was a very serious problem but no political party had bothered to take it seriously. He said that it was strange that no political party had given its programme despite the fact that the elections were to be held within two months.

ASR director Nighat Saeed Khan said that political parties did no homework for formulating their manifestoes as these were to be used for slogan mongering only. The parties did not select candidates for award of tickets for elections on the basis of merit but on the basis of their power to poll the votes in their favour.

Mr Anwar Aleemi of Istaqlal Party said that the political parties in the field were in fact private limited companies struggling to grab power for their managers. Everyone was aware of the performance of the parties coming to power in the name of democracy.

Mr Joseph Francis of Christian National Party was of the view that those involved in religious terrorism had been trained by the agencies. He said that 31 Christians had been killed and over 100 had been wounded in attacks on four churches so far. Nine persons taken into custody in connection the attacks had been gunned down in encounters for cover-up.

Labour leader Hanif Ramay was of the view that political parties had themselves invited the army to seize power to get their opponents ousted. The behaviour of the parties had alienated the people from political process. He said that the army wanted the future parliament to be dumb.

Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam) leader Begum Mahnaz Rafi said that the constitution should not be amended even by a political party enjoying majority in the parliament until and unless the people wanted it to be amended. She said that democracy had failed in the country due to poverty and illiteracy. There was no justification for imposing the graduation condition for contesting the general elections without getting the people educated.

She said that the people had never been allowed to exercise their right of vote on their own free will. Feudals and influential people purchased the votes using their money and influence because of poverty. She said that the political parties had forgotten democracy while in power but remembered it when they were in opposition.

Mr Moazzam of the Pakistan Peoples Party (Shaheed Bhutto Group) said that the army usurped power due to the weaknesses of the political parties. Not only the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League but the army regimes also adhered to the dictates of the WB and IMF. The people could not come out to defend the governments which did nothing for them.

Cecil Chaudhry of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance said that the army seized power again and again not due to the weakness of the political parties but the weakness of the system.

Former HRCP chairperson Asma Jehangir said that the poor, finding it hard to survive under the pressure of privatization, had no interest whatsoever in 58 2B. She said that a person earning less than Rs 8,000 a month could not afford to educate his children due to high fees.

She said that the new police rules would turn the country into a police state. The police would be authorised to raid any premises and arrest anyone without warrant. Even the chief minister would not be empowered to transfer a constable after the enforcement of the rules. Mr IA Rehman told her that the powers she was talking about had already been conferred through Cr.P.C. amendments

Professor Ijazul Hassan of the Pakistan Peoples Party was of the view that the graduation condition for contesting general elections was aimed at depolitricising the people. He said that all the military governments had pursued identical policies in respect of political parties. He said that the elections were meant for highlighting the problems being faced by the people but the political parties were being kept on their tiptoes so that they could not attend to these problems.