KARACHI, Dec 20: Maimoona Hashmi, MNA, daughter of the interned ARD president, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, on Saturday bitterly criticised the regime for suppressing the voice of dissent, and trampling with constitutional rule and democratic dispensation.

Speaking at a news conference at the Karachi Press Club, she said her father’s arrest was an apt example of the consequence of struggle for the rights of the people against and individual’s dictatorial rule.

Lauding the role of media in democratic struggle, she said that Pakistan was created after a democratic struggle of the people of the sub-continent and not because of the generals.

Maimoona Hashmi said the country was going through very crucial struggle for the supremacy of the parliament and the people.

He said during the rule of dictators Pakistan lost three rivers, Siachin and fragmentation of the country. She also criticized the coup d’etat of Oct 12 1999, that brought Gen Pervez Musharraf into power and termed it a national tragedy.

She pointed at what she thought was a growing alienation towards the Establishment because of its frequent interventions, disrupting democratic dispensation.

She said that political parties wanted institution of the military to be strong and doing the job for which it had been created and for which it had taken oath, violation of which was punishable under Article six of the constitution.

She referred to alleged physical torture of Makhdoom Javed Hashmi and said the letter for which he was arrested and maltreated was now being sold by hawkers and had reached the common man. She claimed that such letters kept on coming to representatives of the people.

She warned that if rights of the people were denied and oppressive measures were adopted to suppress and eliminate the voice of dissent, people would rise against such policies.

She said the PML(N) and its allied parties were struggling for supremacy of the people.