I strongly disagree with your editorial titled “No time for war cries” dated 5 October, 2011. The logic that this government was elected for five years and hence should be allowed to finish its tenure at all costs is faulty. Would you sell this to the grieving Hazara families in Quetta, dengue and loadshedding-affected Lahoris and flood waters inundated Sindhis?
The people vote for their representatives with a condition that they will abide by their constitutional role and duties. Peoples’ support is never unconditional.
If and when the elected representatives fail to abide by their constitutional duties, they lose all legal and moral right to represent their electorate. In a way there is a contract between the people and their representatives. If one party fails to hold its side of the bargain, the contract is rendered null and void.
The present federal government has committed endless mistakes and blunders in the last three and half years, as admitted in the editorial. Did the people of Pakistan vote them in to commit these blunders? If not, should this government still be allowed to stay in power for another year and half?
The editorial is also wrong in suggesting that PML(N) would set a negative precedence by overthrowing this government through long marches.
May I remind you that Ayub Khan and Pervez Musharraf’s governments were also overthrown through popular agitation, perfectly within democratic traditions and norms. The precedence was set long ago, PML(N) would only be following it, and this time hopefully seriously.
TAIMOOR ASHRAF
Lahore