KARACHI, Oct 25: Acting president of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Makhdoom Javed Hashmi on Thursday said all the 37 political parties in the All Pakistan Democratic Movement (APDM) had teamed up on a single-point agenda of driving Gen Pervez Musharraf from the presidency to restore democracy in the country.

Speaking at a general body meeting of the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) in the Shuhada-i-Punjab Hall of the City Courts, the PML (N) leader said all the parties would proceed with their separate political agendas for attaining votes in the elections and the unity would remain intact till the achievement of their common objectives.

Commenting on the homecoming of Benazir Bhutto, Mr Hashmi said it was astonishing as to how she trusted Gen Musharraf and failed to honour her commitment with Nawaz Sharif for a joint struggle for the restoration of democracy.

“We will forget what Benazir has done in violation of her commitments if she comes back and joins hands with us under the charter of democracy,” he said and added that Gen Musharraf’s position was very weak and he would not have got votes even from the present assemblies if he had not visited the politicians personally.

He claimed that the president had offered a deal to Nawaz Sharif would be foiled and sought cooperation of the PML (N) members of parliament by not tendering resignations, but Mr Sharif had refused to return home under certain conditions.

Cautioning those striking deals with the rulers, he said getting share in powers was not so difficult but one would have to pay a price for it. He said Ms Bhutto on the one hand was striking deals with the government and, on the other, accusing Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi of hatching conspiracies against her.

The PML(N) leader said the credit went to the legal fraternity and civil society that ran a movement very successfully for the independence of the judiciary, which he said benefited many innocent people across the country and the movement paved the way for the politicians to continue their struggle for the restoration of democracy and constitution in the country.

Criticizing the political parties, he said they did not play the role that was expected of them and that was why the political crisis in the county had further deepened with the passage of time. He added that it was also an opportunity for the politicians to reflect and take a unified stand against the military dictators.

The rulers, he alleged, were busy working on a United States-sponsored agenda which had nothing to do with the country’s interests.

The APDM, he said, had decided to work for the survival of the country and to protect it from the foreign aggressors. He said all efforts of the foreign forces to access Dr Qadeer Khan would be foiled, and the on-going operations against our own people would be stopped forthwith.

Expressing his concern over the rising prices of daily-use items, increasing ratio of unemployment, deteriorating law and order situation, poverty, excessive load-shedding and corruption in the country, he said all this was due to the wrong policies of the rulers, and added that corrupt people, including the military general, needed to be held accountable.

Mr Hashmi said his party would not accept elections held in the supervision of Gen Musharraf and proposed that a caretaker set-up be established to hold free, fair and impartial elections.He said Nawaz Sharif would return to the country in November and play his due role in the restoration of democracy.

He said the generals had brought a bad name to the army and that was why the people had started criticizing the army, saying that if the army stopped intervention in politics, the politicians would also stop criticizing it.

Karsaz carnage

Later, talking to journalists he said the bomb blasts on Oct 18 in Karachi was an attack on democracy, adding that the government wanted to frighten the politicians and confine their activities. He said the recent bomb blasts were part of a series of such incidents the people had been witnessing.

About the public response to Nawaz Sharif’s arrival in Islamabad, he said the nature of return of Benazir and Nawaz was quite different. He said the PML (N) leadership had always preferred to suffer imprisonments than striking deals with dictators.

He said Mr Hariri was a business partner of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who played a role in the return of Nawaz Sharif, claiming that if the government could show an agreement that stipulated Nawaz Sharif would stay out of the country, PML-Nawaz leaders would quit politics.

Mr Hashmi said a number of PML (N) workers had been killed, injured and imprisoned during the Musharraf rule and asked the politicians to follow in the footsteps of the lawyers and step up their efforts for getting rid of the dictators.