KARACHI, Nov 16: Children of several close associates of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah have urged Gen Pervez Musharraf not to betray the Father of the Nation and the freedom fighters who had offered great sacrifices and put in their selfless efforts to bring into being this country.

In a letter sent to Gen Musharraf on Friday, they recalled that Pakistan was achieved by the moral and intellectual force and with the might of the pen “for which there is no parallel in the history of the world.”

The letter has been written by Ashraf and Akber (sons of Shaheed-i-Millat Liaquat Ali Khan), Begum Laila Sarfaraz and Yusuf Haroon (daughter and son of Haji Sir Abdullah Haroon), Begum Atiya Shujaat Hasan (daughter of Nawab Mohammad Ismail Khan), Zia Ispahani (son of M.A.H. Ispahani), Qazi Faez and Qazi Azmat (sons of Qazi Mohammad Isa), Talat Shuaib Qureshi (granddaughter of Begum Maulana Mohammad Ali), Abdullah Hussain Haroon (grandson of Haji Sir Abdullah Haroon), Rukhsana Abbasi (granddaughter of Saadullah Khan) and Samiullah Askari (great grandson of Nawab Salimullah of Dhaka).

They urged him to withdraw the recently promulgated laws and proclamations that curtailed fundamental rights of citizens, and observed that his recent actions had seriously jeopardised the judiciary.

Expressing their concern over what has been happening in the country over the past few months, they regretted that the Quaid’s teachings regarding governance and handling of the state’s affairs were not being followed by the country’s leadership.

“The wellbeing of the country demands immediate withdrawal of the PCO, the proclamation of emergency and all other recently enacted laws that have curtailed freedom of speech and expression, along with the laws that permitted arrest and detention without a judicial trial by an independent judiciary.”

They said that the nation expected from the rulers to have the wisdom to restore the constitution and reinstate all the judges who had sworn to preserve, protect and defend it.

They quoted the Quaid as telling civil officers in Sibi on Feb 14, 1948 that the “government in Pakistan is in the hands of the people … based on fundamental principles of democracy not bureaucracy or autocracy or dictatorship.”

They also recalled that while addressing the American people in Feb 1948, the Quaid had said “Islam and its idealism have taught us democracy. It has taught us equality of men, justice and fair-play to everybody. We are inheritors of these glorious traditions.”

Referring to another speech on Criminal Law Emergency Powers Bill on Feb 6, 1919, they said the Quaid had declared that “no man should lose his liberty without a judicial trial in accordance with accepted rules and evidence and procedure.”

The letter also quoted the Quaid as exhorting the nation at a public meeting in Dhaka on March 21, 1948 that “let us behave and regulate our affairs as free men… we are not suppressed and oppressed under a regime of foreign domination… we have broken those chains.” It said that while addressing gazetted officers in Chittagong on March 25, 1948, the Quaid had said “make the people feel that you are their servants and friends; maintain highest standards of honour, integrity, justice and fair-play.”

They reminded Gen Musharraf that the Quaid, in his address to the officers of the Staff College, Quetta, on June 14, 1948, had said: “Study the constitution and understand its true constitutional and legal implications; and be faithful to the constitution.”