LAHORE, March 29: ARD leaders will visit Wana on Wednesday (March 31), as decided earlier by the coalition, defying the ban imposed by the government on political activity there, an alliance leader said here on Monday.
PML-N MNA Khwaja Saad Rafiq, together with information secretary Zaeem Husain Qadri, said at a news conference that the alliance leaders would assemble in Islamabad from where they would proceed to Peshawar and then to areas under military operation for the past several days.
If the government stopped the ARD leaders from going ahead, they would make another attempt on some later date and express solidarity with the victims, he said. The ARD leaders would try to heal the wounds inflicted by an uncalled for operation against the people who have been defending the country without taking anything in return, Saad said.
He was of the view that fatalities could have been prevented by resolving the issue through political talks, a decision taken by the government after losing dozens of army men. He alleged that those tasked to carry out the operation did not know much about the terrain or the kind of likely retaliation from the local people.
Saad said revelation by the government that some 600 'terrorists' were still holed up in the Wana area meant that the government was providing the US a pretext to go directly for a hot pursuit. Thus, he said, whatever had been done so far, or was being planned, was fraught with dangers to country's solidarity.
He demanded the establishment of a parliamentary commission to fix responsibility on those who had ordered the operation. Or else, he said opposition would take the step on its own.
BYELECTION: He alleged that the Punjab government 'faithfully' adhered to its tradition of large-scale rigging. He said he would like to 'congratulate' those who had a long experience in manipulating the ballot, sarcasm clear from his tone.
Saad said if somebody alleged that the PML-N government had also rigged the local elections in its tenure, the (dis)credit for it would still go to the incumbent chief minister, who had the local government portfolio then.
Commenting on US Defence Secretary Rumsfeld's statement that President Musharraf was not involved in nuclear proliferation but he could not say the same thing about the army, the PML-N leader said this was indicative of the US designs against the army.
He said his party was in favour of peace between Pakistan and India, but the arrival of 'dancers' delegations one after the other was simply 'not tolerable'. Such troupes, he said, amounted to cultural invasion of Pakistan.
The PML-N leader said at a time when India had stepped up oppression in occupied Kashmir, permission to Indian dancers by the Pakistan government to come was absolutely condemnable.
He took exception to the federal education minister's statement that Aga Khan Foundation was being involved in the process of examinations. He said it was wrong decision which would be resisted.nat021