‘Qadri’s long march to sabotage polls, economy’

LAHORE: The government should call the All Parties Conference on long march issue in order to resolve the matter with consultation as another long march will create further hurdles for crippling economy.

Long march will sabotage the election which will pave the way for another dictatorial regime in Pakistan. These views were expressed by the discussants in Jang Economic Session on ‘Another Long March - Impact on Economy’, here on Tuesday. The panellists were Economist Mehmood Mirza, General Secretary ANP Ehsan Wayne, PML-N Parliamentarian Mian Marghoob Ahmed, Naib Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer-ul-Azeem, Information Secretary Thereek-e-Minhaj-ul-Quran Qazi Faiz, PTI Central Leader SA Hameed, while hosted by Sikandar Hameed Lodhi and Intikhab Tariq.

Mehmood Mirza said that long term process was required for social changes for which a manifesto was needed with leadership. He said Tahir-ul-Qadri long march was linked to sabotage the general election which will pave the way for dictatorship. He said Tahir-ul-Qadri is man of conflict so his long march will not bring any social change. Ehsan Wayne said long march announcers were making tall claims on the basis of public gathering at Lahore but factually their security bonds would be confiscated if they contest general election.

He said Qadri had made an attempt to sabotage All Parties Conference in Musharraf’s regime too. He said long march will increase terrorism, economic issues and threaten the constitution. Marghoob Ahmed said that public was not ready to trust dictators’ supporter Tahir-ul-Qadri. He said his party was even not registered with Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). He said 14 January long march will die its own logical death and Qadri will be exposed in front of public.

Ameer-ul-Azeem said the state could not be sustained without politics. He said Qadri should give slogan of clean politics rather ‘safe state not the politics.’ He said his act will further pollute the political process.

Qazi Faiz said long march decision was not unconstitutional and different parties had done long march in the past. He said constitution was suspended while existing democratic system was only so-called democratic system. SA Hameed said general election was approaching in country and there was need of a leadership to bring the country out of crisis. He said only corrupt people become parliamentarians and if the National Accountability Bureau works properly the corrupt people could not contest election.

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