KARACHI, Sept 13: The All-Parties Conference held here on Thursday under the auspices of the Jamaat-i-Islami at its office, Idara Noor-i-Haq has declared that the independence of the judiciary has to be maintained for the survival and integrity of the country, and resolved that any attempt to undermine the recently-restored independence of the judiciary would be resisted by all opposition parties, civil society organisations and the masses.
A resolution adopted at the APC, chaired by the JI’s Naib Amir, Prof Ghafoor Ahmad, condemned expulsion of leader of his own faction of the Pakistan Muslim League Mian Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister, a contempt of court as it violated the Sept 10 ruling of the apex court.
It observed that the rulers had written a new chapter in their history of repression on that day by stopping people from according a warm welcome to Mian Nawaz Sharif on his arrival from London. Access to Islamabad airport was blocked, political activists were detained on a massive scale, sanctity of ‘chader and chardeevari’ was breached by security personnel who scaled walls of the activists’ houses, and all roads leading to Islamabad were blocked. In Karachi, the infamous May 12 episode was repeated with the brutal killing of a lawyer, Raja Riaz, and the siege of the Sindh High Court, the resolution recalled.
The contemptuous instance of the military rulers and their supporters was a calculated plan, in which a federal minister, Dr Sher Afgan and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader, Altaf Hussain, were assigned the task of humiliating the judiciary, it claimed, lamenting that threats to the bench and bar from such figures had reinforced the impression that they were the characters who protected the oppressive system and exploiters.
The APC severely criticised the imposition of Section 144, saying that this tantamount to snatching people’s political, democratic and fundamental rights. It also condemned arrest of MMA leaders and other participants of a peaceful rally in Karachi a couple of days back and barring Tehrik-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan from entering Sindh.
The APC demanded immediate arrest of those involved in the killing of Raja Riaz, and warned that masses would not let Gen Musharraf’s dream of perpetuating his rule materialise.
Speaking at the conference, Prof Ghafoor observed that political uncertainty prevailed in the entire country and this was because of the military ruler’s policies.
Salim Zia of the PML-N said the generals who had recovered the map of “Jinnahpur” from the offices of the MQM were now hands in glove with the same party for achieving their own objectives. He urged the PPP to review its decision of striking a deal with the military dictator as, according to him, this would only consolidate his oppressive rule. Zia Abbas, Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui, Siddique Rathor, Aslam Ghauri, Basharat Mirza, Raja Rashid and several other political leaders spoke at the moot.