Former PPP leader joins Chaudhry Iftikhar’s party

Hidayatullah Afridi vows to promote PJDCP in K-P, criticises PPP over leadership failures

PESHAWAR: Hidayatullah Afridi, a senior lawyer and former Pakistan Peoples Party leader, joined the recently-launched Pakistan Justice Democratic Critic Party (PJDCP) on Thursday. The party is headed by former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Afridi, who has been practicing law since the 1960s and was previously affiliated with the Peoples Lawyers Forum, said he has resigned from PPP and will work towards promoting the new party in K-P.  Afridi belongs to Frontier Region (FR) Peshawar.

Speaking at Peshawar Press Club, he also strongly criticised PPP for its lack of leadership.

“Every leader is busy hatching conspiracies against Zardari to prevent him from seizing the reins of the party,” he said. “However, all PPP leaders are helpless.”

The lawyer added he and his family had been loyal to PPP for the last 40 years. However, Afridi said he would now work for PJDCP.

In his address, he lauded the efforts of Chaudhry, who, he said, rendered tremendous sacrifices to uphold justice and democracy in the country.

He added politicians had been looting naïve people since the creation of Pakistan and providing justice would be PJDCP’s manifesto. “It was Iftikhar Chaudhry who took suo motu action to hold the rulers responsible for their actions,” Afridi said.

The lawyer added people were unaware that such a law existed before his actions.

Seeds of change

The former chief justice of Pakistan launched his party in Islamabad earlier this week and devised a 25-point agenda on health, education and land reforms to solve the problems of the people.

According to Chaudhry, PJDCP will welcome only “non-corrupt people” and the party’s aim is to solve the people’s problems. Chaudhry was appointed as the 18th chief justice of Pakistan by then president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf in June 2005. Two years on, Musharraf asked him to resign but Chaudhry refused and the conflict between the two led to the latter’s suspension in November 2007. Chaudhry was reinstated on March 2009 and retired in December 2013.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2016.