‘Army, government must react to Altaf’s statement’
The PML-N on Saturday said the military and the federal government should ‘explain’ their position on Altaf's words.
ISLAMABAD:
The PML-N on Saturday said both the military and the federal government should ‘explain’ their position on a recent statement by MQM chief Altaf Hussain to seek martial law-like intervention by ‘patriotic’ generals against ‘corrupt’ politicians.
“Because the government was the target of the statement and it was also about the military…so, I think, both must have reacted to it,” PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told a news conference here.
Nisar sought explanation from the powerful military and the government a day after his party said it would never support any ‘secretive’ plan to topple democracy.
Chaudhry, who holds the key slot of opposition leader in the National Assembly, reiterated his party’s stance that any move aimed at derailing democracy would be resisted.
His comments come amid
reports by international and national media that the security establishment had prepared a plan to install a national government of all parties.
Chaudhry said the military should come up with a reaction on the statement like it did in case of Kerry-Lugar legislation by the American Congress.
Similarly, he added, the government should also state its position categorically.
“The silence on part of the government is dubious. I cannot understand why it is like that,” Chaudhry Nisar said.
“It is the responsibility of the government to reply to the MQM chief’s statement. It was meant to be a direct hit at it,” he said.
He said that the privilege motions his party had submitted to the National Assembly against Altaf meant to raise a voice against anti-democratic thinking.
He wondered why the MQM did not raise its voice against corruption during Pervez Musharraf’s tenure.
About the coming session of the National Assembly set to start next week, he advised the government to use it as an opportunity to highlight whatever it had done so far for the rehabilitation of flood-ravaged people.
He said the government had a plan to run away from the session for fear of being criticised but vowed not to let it do this.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 29th, 2010.
The PML-N on Saturday said both the military and the federal government should ‘explain’ their position on a recent statement by MQM chief Altaf Hussain to seek martial law-like intervention by ‘patriotic’ generals against ‘corrupt’ politicians.
“Because the government was the target of the statement and it was also about the military…so, I think, both must have reacted to it,” PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told a news conference here.
Nisar sought explanation from the powerful military and the government a day after his party said it would never support any ‘secretive’ plan to topple democracy.
Chaudhry, who holds the key slot of opposition leader in the National Assembly, reiterated his party’s stance that any move aimed at derailing democracy would be resisted.
His comments come amid
reports by international and national media that the security establishment had prepared a plan to install a national government of all parties.
Chaudhry said the military should come up with a reaction on the statement like it did in case of Kerry-Lugar legislation by the American Congress.
Similarly, he added, the government should also state its position categorically.
“The silence on part of the government is dubious. I cannot understand why it is like that,” Chaudhry Nisar said.
“It is the responsibility of the government to reply to the MQM chief’s statement. It was meant to be a direct hit at it,” he said.
He said that the privilege motions his party had submitted to the National Assembly against Altaf meant to raise a voice against anti-democratic thinking.
He wondered why the MQM did not raise its voice against corruption during Pervez Musharraf’s tenure.
About the coming session of the National Assembly set to start next week, he advised the government to use it as an opportunity to highlight whatever it had done so far for the rehabilitation of flood-ravaged people.
He said the government had a plan to run away from the session for fear of being criticised but vowed not to let it do this.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 29th, 2010.