Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Asma Jehangir has termed the public representatives’ demand for military’s accountability a welcome development.
Addressing a seminar organised by Awami Shehri Mahaz at the National Press Club Tuesday, she said that accountability was in the interest of the people and the country.
“We know about Ojri Camp and such incidents occur when there is no accountability and Hamood-ur-Rehman report was also not allowed to be disclosed for long,” she added.
She said that for long progressive elements have been described as traitors because they demanded that military be answerable to its people and events in the recent days proved that it was no longer acceptable that the military be treated as a ‘sacred cow’.
“I was traitor by birth, but Bacha Khan, Faiz Ahmad Faiz and others were also traitors,” she sarcastically said.
Asma Jehangir said that the Parliament must take the lead in the effort to bring the military under civilian oversight. She said that in the long run Pakistan’s people could not afford to keep subsidising a bloated and repressive security apparatus and a movement to create a genuine welfare state must be started.