PHOTO: INP
Angry rhetoric and political fistfight will end, at least for now. The discomfiture of the ruling PML-N will ease. Reason: PML-N’s persevering archrival — the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf — will return to federal and provincial legislatures on Monday more than seven months after its lawmakers had resigned en masse in protest against the government’s refusal to order a judicial inquiry into fraud allegations in the 2013 parliamentary elections.
PTI’s Core Committee met at the residence of party chairman Imran Khan in Bani Gala, on the edge of the federal capital, on Sunday to decide whether or not to return to the national and provincial assemblies. PTI’s legislators had quit all but one assembly on August 22, 2014 – more than a week after the party, together with populist cleric Allama Tahirul Qadri, had launched a vociferous movement against the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Appearing before the media after Sunday’s meeting, Imran said: “After a brainstorming session, we’ve decided to attend a joint session of parliament over the Yemen issue on Monday because this issue is of paramount importance as far as our country’s future is concerned.” This will be the formal comeback of PTI’s lawmakers to the federal and provincial assemblies as they will continue to attend sessions thereafter.
The decision came two days after the government issued a presidential decree for setting up a judicial commission, as was demanded by the PTI, to investigate the vote fraud allegations. The judicial commission was formed following months of overt and covert negotiations between the two sides.
“After the government’s decision to constitute the judicial commission, there is no justification [for us] to stay away from the assemblies,” he added. “The PTI will play its role as a real and effective opposition in the assemblies.”
Though the PTI lawmakers had resigned from the assemblies more than seven months ago, their resignations were pending confirmation by the speakers of the respective houses.
“We think the Yemen issue is very sensitive and our government should not get embroiled in this conflict as we have already paid a heavy price for such interventions in the past,” he added. “We should instead play the role of peace-broker between the two Islamic countries.”
The PTI leader called upon the government to clear ambiguities vis-à-vis its support to Saudi Arabia in its campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen. “The government is confused on this matter as it has been making contradictory statements,” he said.
Riyadh has asked Islamabad for military troops and logistic support to quell the rebellion against Yemini President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi as it believes the Houthis are a ‘proxy’ of rival Iran. Pakistan has been noncommittal, at least publicly, but it has repeatedly said that any threat to the territorial integrity of the oil-rich kingdom will “evoke a strong response”.
Imran said every Pakistani would be ready to defend the holy mosques in Makkah and Madina, but there was no reason to join any war beyond the borders of Saudi Arabia. “We’ve already suffered losses worth $100 billion and lost thousands of lives due to a never-ending war in Afghanistan which gave us nothing but gun culture and narcotics,” he added.
Karachi by-election
The PTI chairman also used the occasion to renew his threat to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement saying that MQM chief Altaf Hussain would face another legal battle in London if any PTI worker was harmed in Karachi.
Supporters from the two parties, which are contesting the by-election for NA-246 (Karachi-VIII), have clashed over the past few days prompting Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to offer paramilitary Rangers for security in the constituency.
“I’ve a team of lawyers ready in London to frame charges. We have collected all evidence against Altaf Hussain and will go to court in London,” he reiterated. “He [Altaf] is inciting his workers to violence against the PTI in Karachi which is serious crime in the United Kingdom.”
Imran lamented that the MQM had squandered several golden opportunities to shun politics of violence and intimidation and become a truly democratic party. “There are ‘no-go areas’ in Azizabad [where the MQM is headquartered] as the PTI candidate and its workers had been attacked there twice,” he said. “It was a planned attack on our workers, there was no clash,” he said referring to Friday night’s vandalism at a PTI election camp in Karimabad.
SSP Nekokara
The PTI leader vowed that after coming to power – ‘most probably in 2015’, he would not only reinstate SSP Islamabad Muhammad Ali Nekokara, but would also promote him. SSP Nekokara was recently terminated from service for his refusal to abide by the orders of his bosses to use force against the participants of the long march in August.
Imran said his party would fight SSP Nekokara’s case in the court and assist him at all costs. “We should encourage such brave police officers, who consider themselves state servant rather servants of Raiwind or Bilawal House,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 6th, 2015.
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