KARACHI: Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif on Monday declared his party would again establish military courts in Sindh if voted to power in the next general election.
Mr Sharif was speaking at the party’s Sindh Council meeting in a hotel. “If our government comes to power, it will ensure provision of electricity to each and every village and will set up military courts to eliminate dacoit rule in the province,” he said.
It was during the second tenure of the PML government (1997 to 1999) that military courts were set up in Sindh for cases related to terrorism, violence and dacoity.
Apart from uncontrolled robberies in the interior of Sindh, Karachi went through unprecedented violence during the period. A military operation had also been carried out in the city to bring the situation under control.
The Supreme Court ordered abolition of the military courts after one of them awarded capital punishment to an accused in a murder case.
The PML-N chief accused the PPP government of destroying institutions and making life of the common man miserable.
“If the government is sincere with democracy it should immediately hold elections to strengthen democracy,” he added.
Had the government implemented the Charter of Democracy (CoD), the PML-N would have been working with President Zardari in sorting out problems, Mr Sharif added.
He said due to failure of the present government some people had landed in the field with new slogans. “They are all tested people and their game cannot last long.”
Referring to reorganisation of the party and its new office-bearers, he expressed hopes that the time was not far off when people would vote the PML-N to power.
Mr Sharif announced that he would visit the interior of Sindh soon for mass contact.
The PML-N chief said he was confident that the drive would get a good response since the people were angry with the government over its apathy to flood victims.
MEETING WITH ZARDARI Earlier, talking to the media at the airport he ruled out any meeting with President Zardari, who is staying in Karachi, saying he was not aware who was keen to arrange such a meeting.
Mr Sharif said he did not know about Balochistan Chief Minister Aslam Raisani’s statement regarding a meeting between him and President Zardari.In reply to a question about new provinces, the PML-N chief said: “We are all for smaller administrative units in the country, but oppose carving out of units on linguistic grounds.”
Without naming any party, Mr Sharif said “those who are talking about carving out new provinces, will ultimately ask for division of Sindh”, but “we will not support formation of a province on ethnic basis”.
He said although some people in his party were in favour of resigning from the National Assembly, he opposed the idea as “we don’t want to destabilise the assemblies”.
Later, Mr Sharif called on ailing singer Mehdi Hasan and actor Lehri, presenting them with a cheque for Rs2.5 million each from Punjab’s culture department.
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