LAHORE, May 18: An official of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy on Sunday classed the first six months’ performance of the Jamali government as a story of failures that had sparked speculations about the very fate of the system, which he described, “dictatorship cloaked as democracy”.
Munir Ahmed Khan, deputy information secretary, ahead of an ARD leaders’ meeting in Islamabad on Monday, came up with a comment on the situation in every field of life to substantiate his assertion.
Mr Jamali, he said, was faithfully following the policies pursued by Gen Musharraf in his three-year rule mandated by the Supreme Court, and it was for this reason that foreign countries gave more importance to the general than the elected prime minister. He regretted that instead of aggrandising himself as a hero of democracy, Mr Jamali was more inclined to be satisfied with the status of an unknown soldier of dictatorship.
The ARD leader said the much talked about good governance was nowhere to be seen, lawlessness was reigning supreme, there was a tug-of-war between the district governments and assemblies, ministers were still facing NAB cases, exiled leaders had not been allowed to return home and prices were skyrocketing by the day.
He said although politicians were being reviled day in and day out, recoveries made by the NAB had established that military people were more corrupt than political leaders.
Opposition parties, he pointed out, had paralyzed parliament on account of differences on the status of the LFO. As a result, the president could not address the joint session of parliament and the parliamentary year could not begin.
MIAN AZHAR: Former president of the PML-Q, Mian Muhammad Azhar, said on Sunday if the performance of the government remained as disappointing as it was at present, nobody would like to associate himself with the ruling party. He said the fate of the rulers was not difficult to predict as they had left the masses at the mercy of circumstances with themselves seeking protection of the general’s uniform. The destiny of the rulers, he said, was always linked to their ability to grapple with the masses problems, not the sycophancy of their ‘bosses’.
The political image of the party, he alleged, was being tarnished at present and people at the top were more involved in blandishments of the president than going by public aspirations.
Mian Azhar said it was regrettable that devoted party workers had been sacrificed at the altar of expediencies, crowning the turncoats with high offices. Those who had jumped on the government’s bandwagon to save their necks could not be expected to take any initiative for the solution to people’s problems, the former PML-Q president warned.
KHWAJA SAAD: Punjab PML-N secretary-general Khwaja Saad Rafiq said in a statement on Sunday that the LFO was the “mother of all problems” which could culminate in a movement against the rulers.
He said his party would not tolerate moves to impose monarchy under the cover of the LFO.
About the prospects of Indo-Pakistan talks, the PML-N leader said they were dim as long as popular leaders were back home. The present rulers, he said, were concurrently fighting on so many fronts and were devoid of capability to convince India on Pakistan’s principled stand on various issues.