KARACHI, Oct 7: The Sindh National Party on Sunday rejected the National Reconciliation Ordinance, saying that it was in contravention of the 1973 Constitution.

Speaking at a party meeting in Saddar, SNP leaders Amir Bhambhro, Ashraf Nonari, Ramzan Buledi, Dawood Atho, Jabbar Memon, Khalil Bhatti and others said the Establishment was portraying the NRO as an incentive to PPP chairperson Ms Benazir Bhutto and other political figures but in reality, it was a move by the military dictator to pardoned thousands of terrorists and extortionists just to prolong his rule.

They said that if the government was really interested in national reconciliation, then it should order release of thousands of activists of various nationalist parties who had either been arrested or fallen victim to the government’s policy of forced disappearance. They said thousands of people had been picked up in Sindh and Balochistan over the past few years and were still unaccounted for.

They said the government should also grant provincial autonomy, hold free and fair elections and bring an end to the armed forces’ intervention if it was serious in its intention to invoke national reconciliation.

The speakers claimed that the politicians who had ruled over the country so far had lost confidence of the masses.

Hezbul Tehrir

The Hezbul Tehrir has also slammed the government for introducing the National Reconciliation Ordinance, saying that such laws could only be passed by a democratically elected parliament.

By endorsing a presidential ordinance without debating it in the parliament, the legislators had become above the law, it said, flaying the present political set up for changing the constitutional provisions against the will of the masses. In this regard, it cited amendments to various laws, including the Hudood Ordinance.

It demanded introduction of Khilafat system to implement a truly Islamic system of governance in the country.