Militants will not be allowed to impose their agenda: Pervaiz

Says military courts would safeguard democratic rights of masses with speedy justice

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Pervaiz Rashid on Thursday said extremists and militants would not be allowed to impose their agenda in the country.

Speaking at a function organised for paying tributes to the martyrs of Peshawar incident here, he said the entire political leadership had decided that no one would be allowed to form armed groups and ‘Lashkars’ in the country.

“Only the people of Pakistan and parliament will decide what kind of system to be implemented in the country,” he added.

The minister said, “The armed groups cannot not dictate us what to teach our children and to adopt which way of life, and decide about our relations with neighboring countries.”

“We have vowed not to allow armed groups and extremists to dictate us,” he resolved.    He said the day for which the entire nation had been dreaming, dawned last night and now terrorists and extremists had no place in the country.

The minister said the country’s defence was the responsibility of the state institutions as mandated by the Constitution. He said the Peshawar carnage was a national tradgey. It was difficult to express the pain, which would even be felt by the coming generations also.

Pervaiz Rashid said terrorists did not even spare mosques, schools, hospitals and national institutions, but they could not impose their agenda.

Meanwhile talking to a TV channel, Pervaiz Rashid said the purpose of establishing special courts is to safeguard the democratic rights of masses, which were usurped by terrorists. “These are not in fact military courts but constitutional courts as necessary legislation would be done in this regard,” he said, adding that military officials would provide their services for speedy justice.

He said the purpose of military courts established by martial law regimes was to suppress democratic voices while the proposed special courts would ensure protection of democratic rights of masses.

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