ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: Civil society organisations on Monday reviewed their protest strategy and decided to link their struggle with that of the students, lawyers and media to create greater impact.
Civil society organisations have been protesting against the imposition of emergency and promulgation of Provisional Constitutional Order from the day first, but there is a growing realisation in their cadres that something effective needs to be done to forcefully press for the fulfilment of their demands.
Separately, there have been protests by the students, lawyers and mediapersons, which have so far not gotten the desired results.
A civil society activist, who attended one of the meetings held here on Monday to evaluate the strategy, said the colleagues opined that momentum could still not be built.
The civil society’s movement got a big setback when one of their colleagues, Meraj Humayun Khan, who was heading one of the major NGOs coalition, took oath as a minister in NWFP’s caretaker government.
Malik Shahbaz, an official of Strengthening Participatory Organization, told Dawn that the cooperation would be more than just expressing solidarity with others. Instead we would reach out to them and discuss and devise concrete measures.
Another activist disclosed that civil society members would talk to media representatives and extend their conditional support asking them to widen their protest from merely agitating against media restrictions to include protest against emergency and PCO.
Trade unions, traders associations and transporters’ bodies, an NGO representative said, would also be taken on board.
He hinted that the civil society would try to convince these bodies to go for wheel jam and shutter down.
Meanwhile two civil society organisations consisting of retired army officers, judges, politicians and mediapersons, have asked political parties and civil society to get united for the restoration of democracy, constitution and independence of judiciary and media in the country.
In a joint statement, the members of the Citizen’s Group on Electoral Process (CGEP) and Dialogue Group on Civil-Military Relations (DGCMR), observed that fair, free and credible elections could only be held if the state of emergency was lifted, the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) withdrawn, the constitution restored and all the deposed superior courts judges were reinstated.
The two groups are facilitated by the Pakistan Institute for Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT), which is a non-governmental organisation.
The members who endorsed the statement include, Justice (retd) Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, Lt-Gen (retd) Ali Kuli Khan, Gen (retd) Asad Durrani, Mr Ghazi Salahuddin, Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi, Dr Ijaz S Gilani, Dr Imran Ali, Lt-Gen (retd) Jamshed Gulzar Kiyani, Lt- Gen (retd) Moinuddin Haider, Mujibur Rehman Shami, Dr Parvez Hassan, Justice (retd) Nasira Iqbal, Sartaj Aziz, Shafqat Mahmood, Brig (retd) Shaukat Qadir, Lt-Gen (retd) Talat Masood, Tasneem Noorani, Ahmed Bilal Mehboob and Aasiya Riaz.