21:07
Unknown
Karachi
According to the Constitution, the present assembly has to cease to exist by March 18 when it would be completing five years of its existence. Add another 45 days of an interim set-up to that, and elections should be held before May Day.
This was the prognosis of Senator Syed Mushahid Hussain, Secretary-General, PML (Q) while addressing a seemingly impromptu Press conference at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) Sunday afternoon.
He underscored the indispensable need for absolutely free and transparent polls in the country and said that the country’s and society’s well-being and future pivoted around these.
When a number of mediafolk voiced apprehensions about the sincerity of the government to hold elections and their fears that leaders were making calculatedly ambiguous statements in this regard to manipulate a last-minute postponement, while he did not totally agree, he was constrained to acknowledge that the terribly volatile law and order situation in Karachi might just affect the election schedule. This, he said, was because of Karachi’s pivotal position in all aspects in the country. It was home to 10 percent of the country’s total population and was the nerve-centre of industry and commerce which was the lifeblood of a country.
Assuming a very amiable and conciliatory tone towards all political parties, he pleaded for inter-political parties’ consensus and working in unison for grappling with the problems facing the country.
He had special words of praise for Haleem Adil Sheikh and said that he was the most people-friendly minister and cited his role in the equitable distribution of relief and aid among the flood victims, which, he said, Sheikh carried out without fear or favour despite pressures.
The tenor of his address to the mediafolk was the dire need for consensus and cooperation among politicians and stakeholders. He said that the country was witnessing the metamorphosis of a new political culture wherein everything had to be accomplished through unity and consensus. Gone were the days, he said, when all that mattered was the agencies or the martial law. Now in addition, we had the highly independent and bold media, an independent judiciary, a vibrant civil society, and a politically more awake population.
In his opinion, Pakistan was now a more open society. He said that this more open society, coupled with the new emerging multiple power centres, namely, the independent media, the robust civil society, and the independent judiciary would facilitate the holding of free and fair elections.
Right now, he said that strongest person in the country was the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) unlike previously. When a questioner pointed out the “brazen manner” in which the present government was blowing the authority of the judiciary “to smithereens” by disobeying the judicial verdicts and taking up confrontation with the judiciary on so many issues, he was somewhat disarmed but then said that while certain circles in the government were resisting judicial verdicts, they were “not negating them”.
He informed the media that the PML-Q had set up a manifesto committee with Advocate S M Zafar as the Chairman and he himself as the secretary. The PML-Q election campaign, he said, had already got off the ground in the Punjab with public meetings in Vehari and Sialkot and said that the first public meeting in Sindh would be held in Jacobabad on December 16, to be followed by meetings in Larkana and Dadu.
Coming to media organizations and their safety, he said that his party proposed that the next-of-kin of journalists killed in the line of duty be compensated exactly the same way as the personnel of the army and the Rangers. He said that they would also recommend camera insurance, medical insurance, and accident insurance for the journalists and said that they had already had negotiations on the issue with the Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) and other journalists’ bodies.
He was optimistic that while the political leadership seemed to be heading for a bumpy ride, political maturity seemed to have been ushered in which augured well for the country’s future.
As for the delimitation of the constituencies, he was optimistic about the issue citing the cooperation among the Election Commission, the parliament, and the Supreme Court.
He was however, apprehensive of Karachi’s civic unrest and said that if the Karachi situation was allowed to slip out of control, not only would the much-awaited elections be affected but it would hit the economy of the country real hard, and of course most of all there would be the predominantly human angle, the senseless spilling of blood.
According to the Constitution, the present assembly has to cease to exist by March 18 when it would be completing five years of its existence. Add another 45 days of an interim set-up to that, and elections should be held before May Day.
This was the prognosis of Senator Syed Mushahid Hussain, Secretary-General, PML (Q) while addressing a seemingly impromptu Press conference at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) Sunday afternoon.
He underscored the indispensable need for absolutely free and transparent polls in the country and said that the country’s and society’s well-being and future pivoted around these.
When a number of mediafolk voiced apprehensions about the sincerity of the government to hold elections and their fears that leaders were making calculatedly ambiguous statements in this regard to manipulate a last-minute postponement, while he did not totally agree, he was constrained to acknowledge that the terribly volatile law and order situation in Karachi might just affect the election schedule. This, he said, was because of Karachi’s pivotal position in all aspects in the country. It was home to 10 percent of the country’s total population and was the nerve-centre of industry and commerce which was the lifeblood of a country.
Assuming a very amiable and conciliatory tone towards all political parties, he pleaded for inter-political parties’ consensus and working in unison for grappling with the problems facing the country.
He had special words of praise for Haleem Adil Sheikh and said that he was the most people-friendly minister and cited his role in the equitable distribution of relief and aid among the flood victims, which, he said, Sheikh carried out without fear or favour despite pressures.
The tenor of his address to the mediafolk was the dire need for consensus and cooperation among politicians and stakeholders. He said that the country was witnessing the metamorphosis of a new political culture wherein everything had to be accomplished through unity and consensus. Gone were the days, he said, when all that mattered was the agencies or the martial law. Now in addition, we had the highly independent and bold media, an independent judiciary, a vibrant civil society, and a politically more awake population.
In his opinion, Pakistan was now a more open society. He said that this more open society, coupled with the new emerging multiple power centres, namely, the independent media, the robust civil society, and the independent judiciary would facilitate the holding of free and fair elections.
Right now, he said that strongest person in the country was the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) unlike previously. When a questioner pointed out the “brazen manner” in which the present government was blowing the authority of the judiciary “to smithereens” by disobeying the judicial verdicts and taking up confrontation with the judiciary on so many issues, he was somewhat disarmed but then said that while certain circles in the government were resisting judicial verdicts, they were “not negating them”.
He informed the media that the PML-Q had set up a manifesto committee with Advocate S M Zafar as the Chairman and he himself as the secretary. The PML-Q election campaign, he said, had already got off the ground in the Punjab with public meetings in Vehari and Sialkot and said that the first public meeting in Sindh would be held in Jacobabad on December 16, to be followed by meetings in Larkana and Dadu.
Coming to media organizations and their safety, he said that his party proposed that the next-of-kin of journalists killed in the line of duty be compensated exactly the same way as the personnel of the army and the Rangers. He said that they would also recommend camera insurance, medical insurance, and accident insurance for the journalists and said that they had already had negotiations on the issue with the Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) and other journalists’ bodies.
He was optimistic that while the political leadership seemed to be heading for a bumpy ride, political maturity seemed to have been ushered in which augured well for the country’s future.
As for the delimitation of the constituencies, he was optimistic about the issue citing the cooperation among the Election Commission, the parliament, and the Supreme Court.
He was however, apprehensive of Karachi’s civic unrest and said that if the Karachi situation was allowed to slip out of control, not only would the much-awaited elections be affected but it would hit the economy of the country real hard, and of course most of all there would be the predominantly human angle, the senseless spilling of blood.
Posted in: Karachi News
0 comments:
Post a Comment