LAHORE, Jan 3: Former Azad Kashmir prime minister Sardar Attique Ahmad Khan says election under the current system can push Pakistan to civil war.

Speaking at a Meet the Press programme at the Lahore Press Club, Khan said there was a need to make changes to the electoral and political system in consultation with national political leadership.

Khan, who his president of the Muslim Conference, said the incumbent government had given Pakistan nothing more than deprivations, failures and bad governance. He said that Pakistan could not afford the current parliamentary system anymore. He said terrorism, economic mismanagement and lawlessness had already weakened the country.

The Kashmiri politician was of the view that further delay in resolution of the Kashmir issue would lead to a new military conflict in the region. He said Indian aggression was the biggest hurdle in resolution of the Kashmir issue. He said he had differences with the Sharif Brothers of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz over army’s role in Kashmir, adding that he supported the Pakistan Army for defence of Kashmir, but the Sharifs did not see any role for the army in Kashmir. He said that Sharifs’ experiment of forming a Muslim League in Azad Kashmir would fail.

The former prime minister said there was progress on the Kashmir issue during the rule of General Pervez Musharraf. He said political and military leaderships needed to consult each other on all national issues. He said one-sided trade with India would choke Pakistan’s own economy and added that there was a need to be careful about cooperation with India on trade and culture.