LAHORE, Dec 2: PML-QA Senior Vice-President Ejazul Haq on Sunday demanded a sedition case against PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto for her reckless utterances during her recent visit to India on the Kashmir issue which were in conflict with the country’s consistent national stand on the issue.
Talking to reporters at an Iftar-dinner hosted by his brother-in-law Fayz Rahim, Mr Ejaz alleged that the PPP chairperson had gone desperate and she was making statements just to please some important countries to win their support.
He urged the ‘patriotic workers’ of the PPP to take a serious notice of the statements issued by their leader.
Mian Muhammad Azhar, Punjab PPP President Qasim Zia, Punjab PML-N Information Secretary Zaeem Qadri, a representative from the Jamaat-i-Islami, and former senator Dr Basharat Elahi were also present.
Mr Ejaz proposed the establishment of a committee with representation from all important political parties to highlight Pakistan’s national stand on the Kashmir issue.
Asked whether there was still a need for such a committee after the statements of Ms Bhutto, the PML-QA leader said he would talk to the remaining parties, excluding the PPP.
He said the Afghanistan situation had provided some other countries an opportunity to kill Muslims. Russia, for example, was targeting Chechnya, Israel had unleashed a hell on Palestinians and India was massacring Kashmiri Muslims.
These countries, he said, were giving the Muslims same treatment which the US was giving to Afghanistan on the pretext of getting Osama bin Laden.
The PML-QA leader said America while targeting Afghanistan in the name of UN resolutions should also give due importance to the world body’s resolutions on Kashmir.
Replying to a question, Mr Ejaz said since the government was determined to hold elections on schedule, he had advised his party leadership to set up an election cell and a parliamentary board to make preparations.
The election cell, he said, should analyze the results of the previous elections and identify constituencies where the party would have to put in more work.
Asked whether his party was prepared to accept Gen Musharraf as president after the October elections, Mr Ejaz said a decision on the subject would be taken by new parliament. Answering a question, he said Gen Musharraf could have himself elected through a referendum or parliament or use the district Nazims as his electoral college. In his opinion the general would have to make an amendment to the constitution to make the district Nazims as the electoral college for the president, and at this juncture it would not be possible for anyone to speculate how new parliament would visualize such a move.
Replying to another question, Mr Ejaz said the eighth constitutional amendment had minimized the army’s role in governance. But, he regretted, the situation changed drastically after Oct 12, 1999 and, in his opinion, politicians would have to share power with the army in the foreseeable future.
This, he said, meant that the national security would have to be accepted and the army chief allowed to simultaneously hold the office of the president.
Denying reports of his differences with various party leaders, Mr Ejaz said he had presented a list to provincial president Pervaiz Elahi of workers who had not been given party offices despite their sacrifices.