Non-production of Hashmi: PML-N calls NA speaker ‘fascist’

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Monday said that the National Assembly (NA) speaker committed a fascist act by refusing to issue a production order for Javed Hashmi to participate in the election for prime minister.

A joint meeting of the parliamentary party and the central working committee (CWC) of the PML-N rejected the process of the prime minister’s election, accusing the government of rigging and violating democratic norms.

Mr Hashmi, PML-N acting president presently serving a sentence in Adiala Jail, was not allowed by the NA speaker to participate in the prime minister election. He was the ARD’s candidate against the Pakistan Mulim League’s Shaukat Aziz. “The attitude of the ruling clique is not a only total contradiction of its claims of decency and tolerance, but has also further disgraced Parliament. The meeting pays tribute to the opposition for demonstrating exemplary unity,” a resolution passed by the PML-N said. The PML-N said that changing three prime ministers in such a short span of time was a “childishly dictatorial game” of General Pervez Musharraf, which was extremely dangerous for the nation and the country.

The meeting said that the current situation in Balochistan was result of the “incompetence, arrogance, self-centeredness and ignorance” of the government. “The meeting says that oppression, threats, building new cantonments, military operations and killings will only strengthen negative forces and weaken patriotic elements,” a resolution said.

Participants said that the Musharraf government, instead of moving toward a settlement of the Kashmir issue according to the UN resolutions, Simla Accord and Lahore Declaration, continued to retreat from its position by following the Indian agenda.

“This is proved by the fact that the government allowed India to construct a barrier along the Line of Control and also showed willingness to set aside the UN resolutions. Moreover, the government allowed cultural troupes to visit Srinagar,” said another resolution.

The PML-N meeting said that General Musharraf was not capable of handling political and diplomatic affairs, demanding that he must leave those matters up to the “genuine representatives of the people”.

The party rejected the claims of economic progress made by General Musharraf and Mr Aziz as mere deception. “Growing unemployment, rampant poverty, rising prices and increasing incidents of suicide prove the failure of their economic policies.” The meeting said the law and order in the country was not satisfactory. The party also criticised the government’s agriculture policy and condemned the US-led occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The party urged civilised nations and world bodies, including the UN, European Union, Commonwealth, Organisation of Islamic Countries, G-8 and ASEAN, to take action to restore world peace.

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