LAHORE, Aug 31: The Joint Action Committee for People’s Right — an amalgamate of leading NGOs in the country — announced on Friday that it would take active part in the lawyers’ next round of movement beginning on Saturday (today) to press for the rule of law and introduction of democracy in the country.

The announcement was made at a news conference at the Lahore Press Club during which Human Rights Commission of Pakistan chairperson Asma Jehangir and others condemned the political parties’ (mainly PPP) negotiations with intelligence agencies. Asma described it as an attempt to sabotage the lawyers’ struggle for the rule of law and to protect the army’s political role and interests of (certain) political leaders.

She said Benazir Bhutto’s demands (for the restoration of democracy), though genuine, must have been made through a political method rather than negotiations with agencies.

She expressed concern over the missing of 150 soldiers in South Waziristan and said the incident was nerve-shattering because it had happened with “our army which is our asset, honour and for which we pray.”

She said the incident had taken place because the army generals were indulging in materialism. They must maintain a balance and it would happen only when the generals start seeing the reason. “Their time is over. They must return to the barracks and perform duty for which they have been recruited,” she said.

The HRCP chairperson said she was never against negotiations, but these must be conducted according to the rules of the game.

The politicians should have negotiated with the army in a transparent manner, reminding it that its time is over and it must announce the exit strategy.

She said it would have been better had the political leaders negotiated with politicians like Chaudhry Shujaat Husain or Hamid Nasir Chattha. “You must not pretend that you are negotiating for the restoration of democracy and stop befooling us by seeking power through agencies,” she said.

She agreed with a questioner that Chaudhry Shujaat or Hamid Nasir Chattha were not free agents, but said if the ISI was powerful it would protect its own interests. Whether there was a need to negotiate if the army had decided to marginalise politicians? she asked, remarking that even if the politicians agreed to it, the people of Pakistan were not with them.

“I cannot imagine the politicians negotiating with agencies. The president is openly saying he will not allow specific persons to return to Pakistan. No one has given Pakistan on rent to Saudi Arabia. And if you (the president) has given it, you must go there,” she blasted.

Labour Party Secretary-General Farooq Tariq said the NGOs in the action committee would take part in the demonstrations being organised by the Lahore Bar Association and the Supreme Court Bar Association.

They would support the movement for the establishment of genuine democracy in the country. The lawyers had won the first round of struggle and were starting the second round to gain final victory, he said.

Mr Tariq said the civil society organisations openly supported the lawyers’ movement. Their activists had courted arrest in the first round and would now do so again.

They would fight any attempt to forcibly suppress the movement, he said.

He condemned those who, he said, were trying to give a free passage to the military dictator through negotiations for the “restoration of democracy”. The ISI had no role to play in the political negotiations and it was doing so in violation of all laws in the country, he said.

Mr Tariq said like in the past the agencies were playing their role for a change in the government and “we dissociate ourselves from all this process.” Those negotiating with the agencies were supporting the dictatorship weakened by lawyers through their recent struggle.

He said there should be a coalition caretaker government, comprising representatives of the civil society, for holding fair elections in the country.