After parliamentarians cave in, Akhtar ends strike

Parliamentarians accept Akhtar’s demand for anti-corruption bill.

ISLAMABAD:

Nine days without food finally did the trick. Parliamentarians and leaders from the two biggest political parties in the country came to assure Raja Jahangir Akhtar that an anti-corruption bill will be tabled by parliamentarians and that they will work to integrate the goal of making Pakistan a welfare state in their party manifestos.

Upon receiving this assurance, Akhtar broke his hunger strike with a glass of mango juice.

Earlier on Tuesday, former Supreme Court Judge Fakhruddin G Ebrahim came to show his support for Akhtar, telling him, “The people accept you as a good man. Use it to achieve long-term goals [for the betterment of the masses].”

A few weeks back, Justice (retd) Ebrahim, who in 1981 was one of just three judges to refuse to take a fresh oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order promulgated by former dictator General Ziaul Haq, made a noteworthy statement that to encourage transparency in the justice system, judges of the Supreme Court should be barred from holding any government jobs after their retirement.

Fanoos Gujjar, Dr Hassan Nasir and other members of the Awami Party, who have been managing the strike camp stayed by Akhtar’s side till the parliamentarians arrived. A crowd easily numbering in the hundreds assembled to show their support and witness the political milestone.

PPP Senator Lashkari Raisani, National Party Senator Hasil Bizenjo, PPP MNA Farahnaz Ispahani, PML-N MNA Anusha Rehman Khan, and estranged PPP leaders Aitazaz Ahsan Senator Safdar Abassi, Naheed Khan, and former PPP Senator Sardar Saleem were among the group.

Speaking before the announcement, Sarwar Bari told the crowd, “We must isolate the evil and push forward honest politicians.” He added that Pakistan cannot progress amid rampant corruption.

Farzana Bari delivered a fiery speech, saying, “We cannot accept a country where our children can’t even go to school. We cannot accept a country where our Pakistani brethren of different faiths and where our women are so abused. We have a right to live with dignity rather than humiliation.”

Sitting in the audience, Fahad Hasan, a telecom entrepreneur, called Akhtar’s protest “a great effort.”

Naheed Khan delivered a stinging point to her own party’s economic planners, saying, “The PPP of today doesn’t understand its own economic policies.” She called Akhtar “a man worthy of all our respect [for] always working for the downtrodden.”

Anusha Rehman revealed that parliament is currently mulling over an anti-corruption bill. Rehman cited an example of the level of corruption in state bodies, saying, “We are in a country where even the minutes of standing committee meetings get tampered with.” She added, “We should have been here on day one.”

Prior to Aitazaz Ahsan’s announcement of the end of the strike, a member of the crowd was so incensed by PPP MNA Akhunzada Chitan’s speech that he called him out for “spouting nonsense political rhetoric”.

The man, Mamoon Tariq Khan, an entrepreneur who at age 22 entered the Guinness Book of Records for speed-memorising abstractions, told The Express Tribune that he was offended by the attempt to hijack a noble cause for political pandering.

Akhtar later vowed, “This is not the end. I am to go all over Pakistan to create awareness, so that one day, we can become a welfare state.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2011.