ISLAMABAD: Opposition leaders announced on Wednesday that their conference was an “FIR” against individuals attempting to stop their constitutional protection efforts; they promised to go ahead with the next day’s event even despite purported threats against the hotel management.
Along with Awam Pakistan party, conferencing cohost Mahmood Khan Achakzai stated, “Our conference is an FIR against anyone preventing us to protect the Constitution.” We are going to have the conference tomorrow regardless. Let whoever cares to raise down the hotel or apprehend us. Our battle to protect the Constitution will go forward.”
Along with several other opposition leaders, he was addressing the press after the conference. Head of the Tehreek Tahaffuz AyeenePakistan (TTAP) Achakzai claimed that the government was pushing the hotel administration to call off the second day of the event. He did stress that the conference would proceed as scheduled, though, since they would democratically fight against undemocratic and illegal forces throughout.
Throughout the event, media representatives, academic experts, and political leaders debated the present political terrain and national problems.
Former prime minister and Awam Pakistan party coordinator Shahid Khaqan Abbasi underlined that the conference dealt with rule of law, national issues, as well as the Constitution. He lamented a government present nearly terrified of the Constitution and even a little meeting conducted behind doors.
After the first day of the opposition leaders convention, the hotel management advised Abbasi that intelligence or administrative agents had visited and menaced the hotel managers. He stated that they were informed the hotel might be closed and would have to pay millions in penalties if the conference proceeded.
The hotel had first agreed, he said; it is mostly for attorneys and related to the Supreme Court. Still, they were later informed that external pressures precluded the event the following day. Notwithstanding this, we told the hotel staff we had rented the location for two days and that it was a national convention on the Constitution. Abbasi said, “If anybody is pushing you, let them know we are using our constitutional right.”
He slammed the government’s behavior as evidence of its weakness and ineffectiveness, noting, “Their fear of the Constitution and of a tiny conference like ours is proof of their insecurity.”
He also reacted to a supplement printed in the newspapers that day by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN), observing the irony of a government spending billions on ads being fearful of a conference. He said, “This is their total performance,” and noted that the state of the country and the failure of the two major ruling parties, which have ruled for the last half century, including himself, who have been part of these very parties.
Opposition leader Omar Ayub spoke at the conference emphasizing conversations led by Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Mahmood Khan Achakzai on the integrity of Pakistan, survival of the Constitution, and the fate of the nation. He said that politicians, intellectuals, and lawyers came together to debate ideas for Pakistan’s improvement. In strong objection of the pressure put on the hotel management to call off the occasion, Omar Ayub stated, “If they PM Shehbaz Sharif or Mohsin Naqvi come, we will definitely confront them and, as the opposition leader, I will go directly to the Chief Justice of Pakistan.”
Head of the Sunni Ittehad Council, Sahibzada Hamid Raza, parallels Omar Ayub’s attitude: “We’ve always said the programme will go, and today no one has spoken against the state.” Aren’t we Pakistanis’ forbidden to talk in parliament, on the roads, or at seminars?
Emphasizing the value of the Constitution at the seminar, PTI leader Asad Qaiser pointed out that Balochistan and Sindh were in chaos, but the country’s economy and legal and order deteriorated. “Our aim is to bring the people together under the Constitution.” This trend will go on; we are not slaves,” he proclaimed.
Earlier, Maqood Khan Achakzai started the conference by noting the absence of grassroot advantages from independence and criticizing that many Pakistanis were left out of governing votes. He also slammed the management of the February 8 elections as a major constitutional breach, arguing that democracy could only flourish if the primacy of the Constitution was maintained.
Noticing in the government’s attempts to obstruct the conference, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi bemoaned their fear of the Constitution. He said the country suffered when political parties forsake their principles and he was worried about the status of political balance and the rising voicelessness level. He also slammed laws meant to stifle opposition and expressed concern about Pakistani criminal law.
Ex prime minister and convenor of Awam Pakistan party Shahhid Khaqan Abbasi separately verified that opposition groups represented in the parliament differed. And in response to a particular question regarding the PTI and JUIF, he observed that the process was a bit extended, therefore distinctions nevertheless remained among the parties.
They must seek Imran Khan, who is incarcerated. In response to a question, he said there have been two or three contacts between the two sides and they have called Kamran Murtaza and former speaker NA Asad Qaisar, yet personal disagreements still exist.
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He said that as a sizable political organization the PTI had the right to protest, so they could go out. But “we have nothing to do with it.” Said he: “We are trying for all opposition parties to take up the same philosophy to perform their role of opposition, given that for the last year neither the government nor opposition has done anything.”
The opposition leaders wanted to define their part, said Shahid Khaqan, so setting apart their own disagreements since the opposition parties have battled election against one another.
Senator Kamran Murtaza, a senior leader of the Jamiat UlemaeIslam Fazl (JUIF), meanwhile remarked on Wednesday that his party’s concerns prior to entry the major opposition alliance were still outstanding. The opposition parties conference running two days began on the first day; the JUIF did not take part in it. Following 15 days of passage, Kamran Murtaza said the reservations he relayed to PTI leader Asad Qaisar had not been answered.
Scholar Abdul Ghafoor Haideri is leading a JUIF delegation attending the major opposition summit; However, he said. He added that the JUIF had developed functional cooperation with the PTI but could not advance until the party leaders and members are content.
The opposition parties say the federal government has rejected claims of denying an Islamabad hotel permission to host the two-day Grand Alliance Conference, asking them to mention the “official or minister” who requested the event’s coordination be canceled.
Prime Minister’s aide on Political and Public Affairs Rana Sanaullah questioned during a Geo News show ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath,’ “If the opposition has the perseverance to speak the truth, so they must speak truth…which minister or government official gave the orders to the hotel administration.”
Several hours after the opposition coalition Tehreek Tahafuz AyeeniPakistan charged the government of “threatening the hotel’s management,” it will revoke permission for the second day of the moot, being hosted at the site.
“Nothing was antistate; neither did any incitement talk.” Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi remarked to reporters after the inaugural day of the symposium in Islamabad: “Just debates on the Constitution and the rule of law.”
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Present at the meeting were Pakistan TehreekeInsaf (PTI) Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza, Awam Pakistan’s Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Majlis WahdateMuslimeen’s (MWM) Nasir Shirazi, and others.
He remarked that the conference’s hundreds of thousands of attendees not in the streets would be present. The hotel management informed us that they were under threat of losing authorization for the second day of the fold. He added, “The staff members told us in writing why the conference could not be held for the above reason, so it made us helpless.”
Still, he said, the alliance has determined that the meeting will certainly be tomorrow. He said, “This is our constitutional right and we are discussing the Constitution.”
Sanaullah said the hotel staff member might have created the remark and went on to say that the staffer could himself not want to host the conference. He also noted that the hotel staff might not concur with the conference. “From deputy commissioners to commissioner or ministers, tell us who gave the orders,” the opposition was questioned.
He reportedly embraced the opposition alliance and said it would have an agenda and plan of action if it were put together.
“Whatever lead it—Khaqan, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, or Achakzai—straight would prevail and there would be a political conversation or political sensibility.” “The alliance would negotiate with the governing party and problems would be solved,” he stated.
The PM’s assistant pointed out that instead of burning or violent actions, people like Abbasi, Fazl or Achakzai would sit at the table with the government.
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