LAHORE, Dec 24: The Punjab Assembly on Monday paid rich tributes to Awami National Party leader and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa senior minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour who died in a suicide attack on Saturday and appealed to the nation to get united against terrorists.

Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal led fateha for the departed soul immediately after the house proceedings started two hours and 20 minutes late than its scheduled time of 3pm.

After fateha, the house was opened to condemn the Peshawar incident that claimed the life of Bilour and some others while a resolution was also adopted unanimously to eulogise the ANP leader’s services for democracy and his courage in the face of threats by terrorists.

The resolution read: “This house strongly condemns the suicide attack in Peshawar on Dec 22 and expresses its deep sorrow and grief on the death of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa senior minister Bashir Bilour and others in the incident.

“This house declares the death of Bashir Bilour as a national loss as the late leader was a courageous and brave person who laid down his life for his cause and ideology but never bowed before terrorism.

“This house condemns in strong terms all terror hits occurring in any part of the country and is of the considered opinion that the nation will have to unite for countering these cowardly activities.

“This house also offers condolence and sympathises with the bereaved families of Bashir Bilour and the other deceased and prays that Allah Almighty may rest the departed souls in eternal peace and grant courage to the bereaved families to bear the loss with gratitude.”

Before tabling the resolution, law and parliamentary affairs minister Rana Sanaullah tracing the roots of terrorism in the country said the policies adopted by some forces in 1970s and 1980s pushed the country into a hell-like situation and that these forces did not yet learn a lesson from their past mistakes.

He said in early 80’s with the support of US dollars ‘Jihad’ was started by raising bogey of ‘red revolution’ but the Jihadis were not absorbed into any regular force after defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

He questioned why the regular forces did not try to resist the Red Army on their own instead of involving Jihadis, adding the hands trained to carry Kalashnikovs could not do any social work.

The minister urged the ‘forces’ to play a positive role for democracy instead of creating hurdles in its way “through public meetings organised by spending hundreds of millions of rupees”.

PML-Q’s Chaudhry Zaheer called for eliminating the causes of terror hits and said the whole nation, including all political parties and groups, would have to stand united for the purpose.

PPP’s Sajida Mir said terrorism was a mindset and all should counter that way of thinking.

Ehsan Naulatia lamented the Constitution had always been undermined either in the name of ‘basic democracy’, ‘Islamic democracy’ or ‘real democracy’.

PML-N’s Rana Afzal and PPP’s Nazim Shah also spoke before the speaker put off proceedings of the house for Thursday afternoon.