In solidarity with armed forces: Defaming army means defaming Pakistan, says Shujaat

PML-Q supporters stage rallies in different cities of Sindh.

LAHORE/ KARACHI:

Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) chief and former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has said that ‘defaming the armed forces is like defaming Pakistan’. He added that his party would continue to stage rallies in support of the armed forces as long as the ‘vilification campaign’ against the defence institutions continued.

Shujaat said this in a statement issued from Lahore on the third phase of PML-Q’s rallies in support of the armed forces. These rallies were staged on Sunday in Karachi, Dadu, Jacobabad, Ghotki, Layyah, Toba Tek Singh, Nankana Sahib and other cities of Sindh and Punjab.

He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif – in order to ensure the success of his visit to India – should also visit the graves of the Muslims martyred in the Indian state of Gujarat during the 2002 communal violence.

“This is not the first time Nawaz Sharif has clashed with the institutions,” Shujaat said. “Previously he had clashed with army chiefs – General Abdul Waheed Kakar, General Jahangir Karamat, General Asif Nawaz Janjua and General Pervez Musharraf – but this time the circumstances will be quite different,” he said, adding that the government did not seem to be completing its five-year tenure.

The PML-Q chief, however, ruled out midterm elections, saying that the massive rigging in last year’s general elections should be exposed first.

He said the prime minister was continuously talking about ‘changing the map’ of Pakistan. “He should not be talking like this. Changing of the map has double meanings and, Insha-Allah, we will not allow anyone change Pakistan’s map,” he added.

Meanwhile, the PML-Q Sindh chapter staged a ‘Pakistan Zindabad Rally’ in Karachi to express solidarity with the armed forces.

Hundreds of workers came from every nook and corner of the metropolis to condemn the vilification campaign against the defence institutions. Women and children also took part in the rally.

“The whole nation is with Pakistan’s armed forces. We all support our brave soldiers,” said PML-Q’s provincial president Haleem Adil Shaikh while addressing the participants.

He said the purpose of the rally was to show solidarity with the defense institutions as they have been targeted by some elements. The party also organised solidarity rallies in different parts of the province, including Dadu, Ghotki and Jacobabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2014.