Extra-Constitutional Measures and Seizing People’s Rights Risk Civil War: Mahmood Khan Achakzai
ISLAMABAD/QUETTA (Daily Qudrat Quetta): Opposition Leader in the National Assembly, head of the Tehreek Tahafuz Aain-e-Pakistan and chairman of the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), Mahmood Khan Achakzai, has warned that extra-constitutional measures and attempts to deprive people of their rights could create a situation leading to civil war in Pakistan.
Speaking to journalists outside Parliament House, Achakzai said the present government had only a short time left and that no one would accept a formula aimed at excluding PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan from politics.
He said an in-house change would not resolve the country’s problems and suggested that an interim government should be established to prepare for free and transparent elections. “Changing faces will not change Pakistan,” he said, adding that repeated changes of faces had brought the country to its current situation.
Asked whether he would support JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman if he became interim prime minister, Achakzai said he would support him.
Achakzai said political parties should unite at least on several basic principles: Parliament should remain the source of political power, the Constitution should be restored, and every state institution should operate within its constitutional limits.
He warned that Pakistan did not currently have the capacity to go toward a new constitution-making assembly and stressed the need to restore the existing constitutional framework.
On the creation or division of provinces, Achakzai said the Constitution already provided a procedure for such changes. He warned against making territorial changes through executive orders outside the constitutional framework.
He cautioned that attempts to seize people’s rivers and water resources could trigger serious conflict and potentially lead to civil war.
Regarding Imran Khan, Achakzai denied reports of any political deal and strongly criticized what he described as unfair treatment of the former prime minister.
He said Imran Khan was among Pakistan’s most popular political leaders and argued that even if he were an ordinary prisoner, he would have the right to receive medical treatment in a hospital and meet his relatives.
Achakzai said Imran Khan should not be subjected to what he described as unjust treatment, adding that he regarded the PTI founder as a prisoner of conscience and principles.
He also said he had not yet met Imran Khan’s sister, Noreen Niazi, and rejected what he described as speculation surrounding the matter.
