ISLAMABAD, Apr 17 (APP):Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Tuesday said his party would launch the movement for respect of vote to foil the non-democratic mindset that always tried to impose controlled and engineered democracy on the people of Pakistan in the last 70 years.
He was speaking at a national seminar on “upholding sanctity of vote based on the constitution, democracy, supremacy of Parliament and rule of law” here at National Library.
He said the slogan of “respect my vote” was a popular slogan for tens of millions of people, because it carried the whole political history of Pakistan.
It was unfortunate that democracy could not take roots in the country because of interventions by dictators, he added.
Nawaz Sharif said efforts were made for decades to keep in place a controlled and engineered democracy and a mindset made a mockery of the sanctity of vote and people’s right to rule was not wholeheartedly accepted and the public opinion was crushed. The vote was disrespected with unceremonious removal of elected leaders and the history of Pakistan was full of such incidents, he narrated.
He said the leadership of democratic minded political parties was convinced that vote should be respected and rule of law and supremacy of parliament should be ensured.
He said the body politic of the country was plagued by a disease spread by the non-democratic mindset and four martial laws were imposed on the country in 1958, 1969, 1979 and 1999 and the constitution was abrogated and subverted by dictators.
He said the coming generations deserved that vote should be respected to ensure a bright future for Pakistan.
He said all the prime ministers of Pakistan were removed through conspiracies and undemocratic methods and they were killed, debarred from political activities and sent into exile while four dictators enjoyed power for 32 years. “After the military takeover of 1999, I myself was declared a hijacker, made captive in Attock Fort and sent into forced exile.”
In 1954, he said, the Constituent Assembly decided to prepare a constitution in two years and hold elections but Governor General Ghulam Muhammad dissolved the assembly. The Speaker of the Assembly, Maulvi Tameezuddin, had to go to Sindh High Court in a rickshaw in disguise to file an appeal. And then Justice Munir Ahmed gave his verdict based on infamous law of necessity.
Another Prime Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, he said, worked hard and got passed the first constitution of Pakistan on March 23, 1956 but in six months he was removed from office through a conspiracy.
The removal of prime ministers continued and Hussain Shaheed Suhrwardy, I.I Chundrigar and Sir Feroze Khan Noon were removed from office and then in October 1958, General Ayub Khan declared martial law, he added.
Nawaz said successive governments, including those of Muhammad Khan Junejo in 1988, of Benazir Bhutto in 1990 and 1996 and his governments in 1993 and 1999, were ousted and were not allowed to complete their tenure.
He said after elections of 2002 under Pervez Musharraf, three persons were made prime ministers and two of them were sacked. After 2013, conspiracies were hatched to destabilize the PML-N government through sit ins.
He urged the nation to get united to stop those, who look towards “fingers of empires”, from playing games against democratically elected governments.
Nawaz Sharif said elections should be held on time in a free, fair and transparent manner and every political party should get a level playing field and acts like depriving the PML-N candidates of their identity in Senate elections, should not be repeated. If respect of vote was violated then claims of holding fair elections would be questionable, he added.
Nawaz Sharif said there was no allegation of corruption, kickback, commission and embezzlement against him. He was disqualified and sent out of the Prime Minister House for not taking a salary from his son.
He said he was barred from holding the post of president of PML-N and now he came to know that behind the six members of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), another 40 anonymous persons were working.
He alleged that those, who were working against the democratic system, did not want that vote of the people should be respected and popular leadership should emerge in the country for taking independent decisions for progress and prosperity of the country.
Political groups on basis of sectarianism, regionalism and language were being propped up to weaken the main democratic parties and install an artificial political system contrary to aspirations of people, he added.
He called upon the youth to launch a movement for restoration of respect of vote as was done during the independence movement so people get a chance to cast their vote in coming elections.
Nawaz Sharif said the PML-N would give tickets to those candidates who were loyal to the people, law and constitution, adding even if the candidates were not well known they would be preferred over disloyal persons even if they were strong in their constituencies, with the belief that people would vote for the symbol of “lion”.
