LAHORE, June 9: Jamaat-i-Islami amir and MMA vice-president Qazi Husain Ahmad has said that Gen Musharraf’s aggressive attitude and highly provocative statements at a lawyers convention has once again shown that it is only the self-conceit and self-righteousness of one person which is threatening the future of the entire democratic evolution in the country.
In a statement on Monday, the JI amir paid rich tributes to the legal community for taking a firm and principled stand on the LFO. He blasted the government for abusing state resources to split the legal community and bring in loads of junior people of no consequence to stage this drama.
Instead of giving any support to the general, this had only exposed his feet of clay and loss of total creditability in Pakistan and abroad.
“It is a shame that at a time when he is expected to go to US, he is insisting on remaining COAS and president simultaneously which, in fact, vitiates the legitimacy of both”.
The Qazi went on to say that Gen Musharraf must realize that LFO was not an academic issue. The central problem was legitimacy of the regime and by insisting on super-imposing a military position on the civilian head of state, he was threatening the evolution of the democratic process, violating the Constitution and besmirching the face of Pakistan throughout the world, because on one in his senses could call a regime as a democratic one, wherein a military chief of staff was also the head of the state. This is the menacing threat to Pakistan’s national interest,he said.
His claim that he alone knows the national interest and that the 45 million voters who elected their representatives to run the country can be overruled by one man, is height of arrogance and the worst manifestation of dictatorial mind-set, he deplored.
Referring to Gen Musharraf’s bid to invoke the Supreme Court for his alleged authority to change the Constitution, the Qazi said neither the Supreme Court nor had any ruler a right to change the Constitution. He maintained that the LFO was no more than a proposal and could have the force of law only when the elected parliament accepted it with whatever changes and amendments it deemed fit in accordance with the provision for amending the Constitution.
The MMA, he pointed out, has gone more than half way to find out a solution to the problem, but it is Gen Musharraf’s insistence, which is the main bottleneck. It is time that all the members of the parliament, belonging to all shades of political opinion, should resolve to restore the Constitution and establish parliament’s sovereignty and not surrender at the super-ego of one person.