We stopped Balochistan from becoming an inferno: Shujaat

Chaudhry Shujaat says PML-Q had valid reasons for siding with a military ruler during the previous regime.

KARACHI: Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) has stopped Balochistan from becoming an inferno.

Chaudhry Shujaat said that the PML-Q has a democratic record and had valid reasons for siding with a military ruler during the previous regime.

The leading member of the newly-formed All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) was speaking with journalists at the Karachi Press Club on Sunday to discuss the developments and aims of the party. He was accompanied by Mushahid Hussain.

“We stopped Balochistan from becoming an inferno, we prevented our forces form going to Iraq, we introduced the local body system and we confronted the then president on matters of Lal Masjid, judiciary and Akbar Bugti’s killing,” Chaudhry Shujaat said.

He said that while a dictator does not need to be elected, the PML-Q established a free and fair system of democracy.

On allegations that they had abandoned Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Shujaat said that they did not desert any allies, but had instead been left by the Sharif brothers. They are in Karachi for flood relief in Sindh and to hold talks with various political groups, he said.

Criticising the government for inaction “when floods were sweeping the country”, he said the president was visiting his “chateau in France and the prime minister was visiting fake camps...Because of the government’s inefficiency, the natural disaster has been converted into a man-made disaster,” Hussain said. “They will have to pay for it in the next elections,” he warned. Talking about the merger of League factions, Hussain said: “At a time when political parties are bickering and fragmenting, we have reversed the trend by opting to merge.”

He said that the invitation is also open to PML-N,and Tehreek-e-Insaaf and MQM.

He said that there has been a spectacular shift in power structure in Pakistan, adding that now army and political parties are not the only stakeholders. Media, judiciary and civil society are gaining more hold on the power structure, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune September 20^th, 2010.