Calling it a ‘barbaric act of the Musharraf regime’, the APC urged people to condemn the killing of nationalist leader and Jamhoori Watan Party chief Nawab Akbar Bugti and his associates in a military operation in Kohlu on Aug 26.
Reading out the joint declaration issued at the end of the conference attended by opposition parties, ARD (Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy) chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim called upon Gen Pervez Musharraf to ‘immediately quit’ as he was responsible for the assassination of Nawab Bugti.
He announced that a public meeting would be held in Quetta on Sept 15.
“The APC demands that the body of Akbar Bugti should immediately be handed over to his family for a respectable burial,” Mr Fahim said while briefing reporters about the decisions of the APC.
The conference was attended by leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League (N) and nationalist parties from Balochistan and the NWFP.
PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif addressed the APC via telephone from London.
Mr Fahim said the APC had resolved to organise meetings outside provincial assemblies to condemn the ‘target’ killing of Nawab Bugti. The APC demanded that all ‘missing’ persons and political prisoners should be released immediately.
It called upon the Supreme Court and Balochistan High Court to take suo motu notice of Nawab Bugti’s killing and order registration of a murder case.
Mr Fahim said a joint parliamentary committee should be set up to probe the ‘murder’ of the JWP chief.
In reply to a question, he said opposition leaders had discussed resigning from parliament and provincial assemblies and a decision in this regard would be taken at an ‘appropriate’ time.
MMA deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch said a meeting of the supreme council of the alliance had been called on Sept 5 to decide about quitting the Balochistan government.
Mr Nawaz Sharif, addressing the APC, called for unity among opposition parties and said time was ripe to tender resignations from assemblies. Some speakers, including PTI chief Imran Khan, proposed launching a ‘civil disobedience movement’.
The APC described Nawab Bugti’s killing as one of the ‘darkest hours’ of the country’s political history. The APC paid tributes to the late Bugti, saying he had the distinction of voting for Pakistan as a member of Royal Jirga in 1947. The conference observed that Gen Musharraf had threatened and declared his intentions of attacking opponents in Balochistan with ferocious precision weapons.
“Akbar Bugti was gunned down in a large-scale overt military operation according to a plan as two days earlier a government-sponsored so-called jirga of Bugti tribe was staged to declare renunciation of loyalty to their sardar,” Mr Fahim pointed out.
“It is an indication of the regime’s mala fide intent that it changes its version of the event on a daily basis. From the news that Bugti was tracked through his satellite phone and killed in a military operation that followed to the story of attack on helicopters and his getting killed in a retaliatory attack to the story of cave coming down. Every day the government stands more exposed that it is hiding the truth,” says the declaration.
“The APC felt that this brutal act is tantamount to extra-judicial target killing, which is highly deplorable and poses serious threats to our federation. Now all Pakistani politicians face the prospect of being labelled as anti-state elements or terrorists if they fall out of the establishment’s line and can be summarily disposed of.”
According to the declaration, no army of any sovereign and democratic nation can “boast of assassinating an 80-year-old veteran politician and chieftain with the help of modern precision weapons and it was the role of colonial armies to establish its terror and might through brutal acts against people.”
The APC resolved that the time for a decisive struggle against the unconstitutional regime of Gen Musharraf had arrived.
The APC reiterated its commitment of establishing real democracy in the country by ending the interference of military and intelligence agencies in the political process, strengthening the federation by respecting provincial autonomy and redressing grievances of all provinces, and foiling the designs of Gen Musharraf to keep 150 million people of Pakistan subjugated and political slaves to army.
Those who attended the conference included MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmed, PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Raza Rabbani, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Tehmina Daultana, Asfandyar Wali, Ahsan Iqbal, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Sherry Rehman.