Opposition rally calls for ending operation: Kohlu killing condemned
At a public meeting at Minar-i-Pakistan, they said that those responsible for the Kohlu tragedy had noting to do with Punjab.
Some Baloch leaders also attended the meeting which was presided over by Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim.
Almost all Baloch and the Pakistan Muslim League-N leaders proposed that opposition parties should resign their assembly seats and launch a decisive struggle against military rule in the country.
Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) leader Hafiz Husain Ahmed proposed that the ARD chairman should announce the formation of a grand opposition alliance, which should meet on Monday and quit their seats en masse the following day.
The ARD chairman, however, did not make even a passing reference to the idea. Also, he stopped short of supporting the call for a grand opposition alliance.
The six-hour public meeting ended at about midnight.
MMA leaders Qazi Husain Ahmed and Maulana Fazlur Rehman did not turn up, although the ARD leaders were expecting that they would.
London-based PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif addressed the rally on phone, but PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto didn’t.
Mr Fahim said democratic forces should bear in mind the dangers of ‘one-man rule’ and added that the right to rule lay with those elected by people.
“Better sense should prevail and the army should honourably return to the barracks, confining its role to that mentioned in the Constitution,” said the ARD chief, calling for an immediate end to the military operation in Balochistan.
PONM leader Qamar Bhatti said Punjab had been wrongly accused of connivance with the establishment against smaller provinces.
Abdul Hayee Baloch said the youth in Balochistan felt they were being treated like second-rate citizens. “They will not accept this treatment any more, nor surrender their rights.”
He said the prevailing situation in Balochistan was graver than the one which had led to the dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971. “If the federation is to be kept intact, Punjab will have to lead the way for the restoration of parliamentary system.”
He said opposition MPs should resign immediately.
Rauf Mengal, who recently quit the National Assembly, said that Baloch people considered all those sitting in the federal and Balochistan cabinets responsible for Nawab Bugti’s killing.
He said the protest by Punjab over the killing was inadequate.
Mr Mengal said the ARD and MMA would be adding to their prestige by quitting assemblies. By adopting this course, he emphasised, the current protest wave could lead to a revolution.
Sardar Yaqoob Nasir of Balochistan said people of Punjab had demonstrated through this largely attended meeting that they wanted to keep the federation intact. He said the map of an independent Balochistan was with ‘friends’ of Gen Musharraf and had not been recovered from Nawab Bugti.
NWFP PML-N leader Pir Sabir Shah said today’s demonstration in Punjab had actually saved Pakistan.
ARD secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Balochistan PPP president Nawab Lashkar Raisani, Ghulam Mustafa Khar, Aitzaz Ahsan, Begum Abida Hussain, Khwaja Saad Rafiq, Maimoona Hashmi, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Tehmina Daultana, Sahibzada Fazle Karim, Liaquat Baloch, Nawabzada Mansoor Khan, Hameeduddin Mashraqi, Zulfiqar Ali Khosa and several other leaders also spoke.