KARACHI, Jan 13: Speakers at a seminar asked President Musharraf to quit power in the larger interest of the nation, appoint the Senate chairman as his replacement and form an interim government to hold the elections in a fair and transparent manner.

The establishment of an impartial election commission, independent judiciary and media, and an evenhanded probe into the assassination of Ms Bhutto were other major demands of the speakers who had gathered at a local hotel to pay tribute to slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

The programme, “National Security-Challenges & Response”, organised by the Sindh United Forum and Association for Citizen Empowerment, was addressed by former chief justice Saiduzzaman Siddiqui, Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed, Illahi Bukhsh Soomro, Arif Alavi, Qamar Ali Shah, Irfan Qureshi, Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, Imdad Hussain Chandio, Yousuf Mustikhan, Maj-Gen (retd) Abdul Qayyum and Pir Zafar Ali Shah.

Justice Siddiqui said despite the country-wide protests against the policies of a former general, President Musharraf had not quit. The country had split when Bengalis were deprived of justice, he said, regretting that the rulers had not learnt a lesson from it.

He said that wrong policies of the rulers had caused chaos in the tribal areas, frontier province, Balochistan and Sindh. He stressed that all the provinces be given equal opportunity to run the federation and their grievances be addressed.

He said the assassination of Ms Bhutto was a national tragedy, which deprived the country of a national leader. “Benazir Bhutto was undoubtedly a chain for all the four provinces,” he said. The dictators had always targeted the democratic institutions which were a country’s strength, he added. Had there been a democratic government the situation would have been different altogether, he said and called for an impartial interim government and a powerful election commission to ensure fair and transparent election.

Justice (Retd) Wajihuddin Ahmad said that the Senate chairman could not be appointed as prime minister constitutionally because he had a track record of supporting Mr Musharraf in the past. He said a new interim government could be formed in consultation with political parties, which also be entrusted to set up a new election commission. He termed Ms Bhutto’s assassination ‘a great national loss’ and said it seemed a part of some ‘great game’ played by the forces who did not want popular leaders to rule the country.

Former National Assembly speaker Illahi Bukhsh Soomro said that Ms Bhutto was like a daughter for him as she was daughter of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto with whom he had friendly terms. He said that internal security of the country was at serious risk and a strong democracy was extremely needed for the country’s survival. He said Ghulam Mohammad, a civil servant, was the first who had targeted democracy in 1953 and removed an elected prime minister. Since then, he said, the country was being ruled on the doctrine of necessity.

Meanwhile, a candlelight vigil was staged outside the Karachi Press Club by the Pakistan Peoples Party’s minorities wing to pay tribute to the party’s slain chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

Dozens of workers and supporters of the party gathered outside the club, showered rose petals on a large portrait of the PPP leader and chanted slogans to express solidarity with the Bhuttos and condemn the government for its failure in unearthing the assassination conspiracy.