Speakers at a seminar organised by Awami Shehri Mahaz at the National Press Club on Monday discussed the need for restructuring the Pakistani state and the society by reducing military’s powers. A representative of Workers Party Pakistan, Asim Sajjad, said that the country’s resources should be transferred to the people from the army. The speakers said that the country will not survive if an “inordinate” proportion of public money continues to be monopolised by the military in the name of national security. However, the student’s representatives said that the political and cultural extension was obligatory to bring genuine democratisation. The students praised the initiatives taken by the government such as establishment of FATA political parties to reduce the power of the civil and military bureaucracies. The speakers said the federation of Pakistan would not last if the “state terrorism” in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan was not brought to an end.
