KARACHI, Aug 13: The move to present no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Aug 23 would be a turning point in the politics of Pakistan.

This was stated by the central information secretary of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, Ahsan Iqbal, while speaking at a press conference held here at the Karachi Press Club on Sunday afternoon.

Flanked by his party leaders Salim Zia, Mamnoon Hussain, Sardar Rahim, and Nihal Hashmi, the PML-N leader said that the joint opposition had already started its struggle to get rid off the present rulers and holding free and fair elections through an independent election commission as the opposition wanted to exhaust all democratic methods to restore right of self-governance of the people but if the government did not see reason and bent upon to rig the elections, the opposition would launch a “mega” movement with more intensity than 1977.

In reply to a question, he said that after the landmark decision of the Supreme Court in the privatisation case of the Pakistan Steel Mills, the rulers had lost the right to remain in power.

When his attention was drawn towards the government’s claim of providing lead for the arrest of Pakistanis in the country and Britain for averting a blast of a Trans-Atlantic flight, Mr Iqbal said that in every three months the government came out with a disclosure of some scheme to appease and prove the US that in Pakistan only General Musharraf was an important partner of the US in its war against terrorism.

In reply to another question, he said that the PML-N after coming to power would ensure autonomy of the provinces within six months in accordance to the 1973 constitution and also ensure to check corporate interests of the army to turn it into a professional army.

He said that due to the establishment, which had made the nation hostage since 1958, not only Pakistan had failed to make the required progress but its citizens also stood deprived of the confidence that they could form the government of their choice through their ballots.

Earlier in his initial statement, Mr Iqbal said that democracy was the need of our national security, nuclear capability and defense of the country.

He said that the world could only be satisfied if Pakistan had strong national institutions to dispel the impression that the decisions makers were not individuals but institutions which were responsible for running the affairs of the country.

Mr Iqbal said that after the 9/11 incident there was flow of $50 billion in Pakistan but due to the inept economic policies the government failed to make investments in specific economic development projects as a result today the country was facing worst power, cement and sugar crises as the economy had been transformed into a credit economy.