DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Oct 19: NWFP Chief Minister Mohammad Akram Durrani paid tributes to Maulana Mufti Mehmood at a conference here on Sunday.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chief of his own faction of the JUI and general secretary of the MMA, ARD chairman and acting president of the PML-N Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, JUI-F general secretary Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and MNAs Maulana Rehmatullah Khalil, Maulana Atta-ur-Rehman, Maulana Meraj-ud-Din and Maulana Amanullah Haqani were among those who spoke on the occasion.

In his speech, Makhdoom Hashmi flayed the military rule and asked the army top brass to pull back the forces to barracks.

He said military rulers had ruined democracy and the democratic institutions were at the mercy of the army generals.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman said a military dictator was running the country, prompting the Commonwealth not to restore Pakistan’s membership.

He lambasted the double standards of the United States as, on the one hand it was supporting a military dictator in Pakistan and, on the other, was rejoicing over ousting a dictator in Iraq.

He alleged that due to wrong policies, over 1,400 miles long western borders of the country had become insecure. In the new Afghanistan map, he claimed, even Attock and Jacobabad districts of Pakistan were included in Afghanistan.

Maulana Rehman said the Legal Framework Order could never become part of the Constitution, and termed it merely an order of a military general.

The speakers strongly condemned the military operation in South Waziristan Agency in the name of Al Qaeda suspects.