Pakistan: Troops deployment federal govt failure

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Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar’s proposal to hand over Islamabad’s control to the army for three months has proved that the government has completely failed to secure the lives of 1.5 million people living in the city. This also raises the question as to how this government can ensure security of the whole country.

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah said this while talking to the media here on Friday. He said the proposal of the PML-N’s top minister had hurt him and the nation.

Shah said he had been advising the government not to create hurdles in the scheduled long march of Imran Khan. He said such an intention of the government would create hurdles in the march and cause problems for democracy. Khursheed Shah also hoped that Imran Khan will not create any uproar on that day because 14th August is a day to share happiness and celebrate it with political and religious zeal. He said Imran Khan had made it clear that he intended to hold a political rally not a sit-in.

To a question, Shah said he was totally unaware about Imran Khan’s new statement of playing a Test match not a 20/20 match. He said by changing his strategy, Imran Khan would develop a tug of war between both political parties, which would be bad for democracy.

He reiterated that there was no chance of a martial law and the PPPP would not allow any effort to derail democracy. Calling Deputy Speaker Sindh Assembly Shehla Raza his sister, he said she has been misled by someone on the plea of NRO as there was no article of martial law imposition written in the NRO contract.

Referring to Tahirul Qadri, Shah said his revolution was washed away when he met and held talks with Punjab governor in the plane. He said revolutionary persons never talk with the government and mentioned that Shaheed Z A Bhutto and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto brought revolutions instead of bowing before dictators.

Shah told a questioner that Pervez Musharraf will leave Pakistan today or tomorrow. Meanwhile, Khurshid Shah distributed clothes among poor women in a programme arranged by the Khwaja Ghareeb Nawaz Foundation, Sukkur. Online adds: Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah on Friday said troop deployment in the federal capital testified to the federal government’s inability to maintain peace and harmony.

Talking to media persons here, he said if the government was not able to protect 1.5 million people of the federal capital then how it would run the country.Khursheed warned that the federal government’s move to stop Imran Khan’s long march will be dangerous for democracy. He said PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri’s revolution had died.

Asim Yasin from Islamabad adds: The PPP on Friday opposed the handover of Islamabad to the army under Article 245 of the Constitution.“The decision is charged with serious consequences for the people and the country, as it means not only the failure of the civil administration, but also total suspension of the jurisdiction of higher courts. Worse still, in practical terms it also means setting up of military courts which cannot be permitted,” PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar said in reaction to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s announcement that the federal capital’s security will be handed over to the army.

Babar said the PPP had always opposed the invoking of Article 245 for calling the army in aid of civil authority whether it was Karachi or other parts of the country.“The situation in Islamabad is not worse than in any other part of the country to warrant inviting the security establishment to fix it by vesting in them powers beyond judicial oversight,” he said.

He said the government had failed to recognise that if today it was Islamabad, then tomorrow Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Lahore, indeed the whole country may have to be handed over to the army under the Article 245 and practically dispense with the high courts.

He said the decision to hand over the federal capital to the army will also send disturbing signals to the world about the prevailing security situation in the country.

Babar said the decision reflects the penchant of the PML-N government to lean on the security establishment for everything, be it meter reading or tracing of ghost schools or appointing monitors and was most unfortunate. “And let us not forget the security apparatus once called in aid of civil power under this article might want to linger on even after it is no longer needed. No one wants to relinquish power or abdicate a position of authority and influence in which their actions are not called into question in the courts,” he added.

He reminded the PML-N government of the Charter of Democracy (MoD). He said four articles of the charter (articles 32 to 36) called for concerted actions to address distortions in the civil-military relations. “The decision to hand over Islamabad to the army will, instead of correcting the existing huge imbalance, further tilt the balance against the civilian, political and judicial structures of the country,” he said.