The allies of newly-elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday proposed him either to let his traditional foe, General Pervez Musharraf (Retd) go scot-free or roll up his sleeves to bring all those to book, who aided and abetted the military dictators in toppling democratically-elected government.
After being elected as Prime Minister for the third time Nawaz Sharif among others in the National Assembly was shocked when his coalition partner and a seasoned politician, Mehmood Khan Achakzai of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), demanded across the board accountability of all those who supported Musharraf for staging a coup in 1999 and abrogating the constitution twice instead of targeting a single person.
"If you are going to take action against Musharraf for abrogating the constitution, then also bring all those to justice who supported his steps...if not then let him [Musharraf] go by taking some guarantee or otherwise stop the ongoing drama," Achakzai said, adding that holding a single person responsible for the extra constitutional steps was unfair.
He recalled that when Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto (late) and he himself along with other political leaders were struggling for the restoration of democracy during Musharraf regime, they had pledged that there would be no role of the military and the secret agencies in the country's politics and all the institutions would be subservient to the parliament.
"This is the time to act upon the commitment which the political leadership had made," he said, adding that a fact-finding commission should also be set up for across the board accountability. He also suggested a joint resolution be passed by both the houses to condemn in the strongest words those judges who supported consecutive martial laws in the country and made them part of the history, besides paying rich tributes to those [judges] who refused to support dictators and hence lost their jobs.
Furthermore, he also proposed to make legislation for lifetime cancellation of licenses of those lawyers who had been involved in legalising the extra constitutional steps of dictators. He further said that the services of generals who had obeyed the orders of civilian government and did not opt to stage coup should also be acknowledged by the parliament.
Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarian (PPP) leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who before congratulating Nawaz Sharif on being elected prime minister, said the credit for electing Nawaz Sharif the prime minister for the third time should go to the PPP. He said that it was PPP which introduced amendment to the constitution which end the restriction on individuals for becoming prime minister for the third time.
Referring to the speech of Nawaz Sharif in which he praised the PPPP former government for awarding contract of Gwadr port to China, Fahim said that his speech was silent about the crucial Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, which is need of the hour to get rid of the energy crisis.
He also demanded that the newly-elected government should complete the IP gas pipeline project on priority basis. Fahim said PPP would play the role of a constructive opposition in the National Assembly, adding that democracy had been strengthened and all steps during the tenure of the PPP government had been taken in-line with the constitution of the country.
He recalled that when the PPP was in the power, it had appointment several heads of parliamentary committees from the opposition and gave the chairmanship of Public Accounts Committee to opposition leader. He said that PPP while remaining on the opposition benches will support the good steps of the government. However, he added, it will not accept any wrong decision of the government and hoped that problems being faced by the country such as terrorism and load shedding would be solved on priority.
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