LAHORE, May 21: Mian Muhammad Azhar, a former president of the ruling PML-Q, came out of his five-month political dormancy on Wednesday by calling on ARD President Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, and adding voice to opposition’s demands that the LFO could be made part of the Constitution only after parliament’s approval and that it was for the bicameral legislature to decide whether under the Constitution Gen Musharraf was eligible to become president.
After a 45-minute meeting with the octogenarian leader, known as demolition squad against all military and most of the civilian governments, Mian Azhar assailed the performance of his party government but used incredibly soft language for the Sharifs and Ms Benazir Bhutto, of whom he has been a bitter critic until recently.
Parliament was sovereign and it should take all decisions about the legality of the LFO and eligibility of Gen Musharraf to stay as president at a time when he was also the army chief, said the former Punjab governor, who had shot to prominence because of his frequent meetings and not-so-secret contacts with the military leadership after the overthrow of the Nawaz Sharif government.
He was defeated in the general elections and shortly thereafter was made to quit as head of the ruling party as well because of his differences with the prime minister and the Chaudhris of Gujrat.
Since then, he has been in contact with opposition leaders and the ARD president paid at least two visits to his residence, one of them in the presence of Mr Jamali.
When a newsman pointed out that before the elections he was ardent supporter of Gen Musharraf and recognized his right to amend the Constitution apart from staying as president in military uniform as had been done by his predecessor Gen Zia, Mian Azhar said nobody should forget that after the elections Gen Zia had taken all matters to parliament.
He did not agree with the suggestion that by his utterances he was weakening the government of the party he had been heading until a few months back. He said adherence to what he was saying would strengthen the government.
“I am trying to bring the government on the constitutional path. The government will get weaker if it doesn’t do what I am suggesting”.
He said he was calling for the implementation of the manifesto, on the basis of which the party had contested and won elections.
Mian Azhar made it clear that he was not going to launch a new party.
In response to a question, he said the democratic process must continue and there would be no justification for anyone to sack parliament on any account.
To another question, Mian Azhar said nobody should be surprised by his tone and tenor. Difference of opinion existed in all parties, the former PML-Q chief argued, adding that he was under pressure from his party workers to hold a meeting and decide the future course of action.
He claimed that a large number of people in the party supported his point of view. “For the time being, I am neither in the government nor a part of the opposition”.
Mian Azhar supported demands that the exiled leaders should be allowed to come back home. He said it was strange that the rulers had found corruption proof against the Sharifs and Ms Bhutto alone, and nobody else.
About the assorted proposals being mooted for the solution of the five-decade Kashmir dispute, Mian Azhar said no decision should be made without taking the nation into confidence.
He said Pakistan had rendered countless sacrifices and made huge investments in Kashmir which could not ignored.
PML-Q’s former information secretary Anwarul Haq Ramay was also present at the meeting.