KARACHI, Aug 11: Speakers at a seminar here on Sunday paid tribute to the late Baloch leader Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo for his services to the cause of democracy and national rights of the people.
Describing him as a true democrat and nationalist, they said the late leader believed in a federation where “sovereignty belongs to the federating units as equal partners in managing the affairs of state.”
The speakers were of the view that democracy could not flourish in the country because successive rulers (both army and civilian) did not recognize the rights of the people belonging to the federating units, which they termed historic national units, not merely administrative units.
The seminar was held under the aegis of the Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo Foundation in the PMA House to commemorate the 13th death anniversary of the late leader.
The speakers were deputy chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, Jeay Sindh Mahaz Chairman Abdul Khalique Junejo, Lala Lal Bakhsh Rind of the National Workers Party, former senator from Balochistan Tahir Bizenjo, Dr Syed Jaffer Ahmed and Shahid Baloch, the chairman of the Bizenjo Foundation.
Prof Ghafoor recalled the days when after the fall of Dhaka, the army handed over power to the PPP. At that time, he said, the country badly needed unity, solidarity and constitutional rule.
The JI leader said despite all his reservations and manipulations by the PPP leaders, the late Mir Bizenjo played a vital role in framing the 1973 constitution which had never been implemented in letter and in spirit.
According to the JI leader, the country cannot be run by the army, rather it is the people who have the right to manage the affairs of the state.
He deplored that smaller provinces had never been granted their rights which resulted in the dismemberment of the country in the past. He particularly referred to the plight of the people in Balochistan where a vast majority lived in utter poverty and backwardness.
The JI leader said Islamabad must stop interfering in the affairs of the smaller provinces. If the army failed to mend its ways and continued to interfere in the political affairs of the country, the country would face repeat of the 1971 situation.
Criticizing the role of the army in national affairs, JSM Chairman Abdul Khalique Junejo said the army continued to interfere in the political affairs of the country and they had never allowed democracy to flourish.
He recalled the 1970 elections when the Awami League emerged as the single largest party in the National Assembly, but the army and some of the political parties in West Pakistan rejected the people’s mandate.
He was of the view that democracy without giving the nationalities their rights was meaningless. He made it clear that nationalists were not against democracy, but they were against autocracy where the rights of the people as a nation were not accepted.
Paying his tribute to the late leader, Mr Junejo said the late Mir Bizenjo always worked for the supremacy of parliamentary democracy and national rights.
Dr Syed Jaffer Ahmed said the late Mir Bizenjo was a true democrat and he struggled for a parliamentary form of government where prime minister and his cabinet were accountable to parliament and the people.
He said the late leader rightly believed that Pakistan as a federation could only survive when the people living in the federating units were recognized as equal partners.
Despite all its shortcomings, democracy was the best form of government, he emphasized.