Renowned lawyer and Pakistan people’s Party (PPP) leader Aitzaz Ahsan has ruled out the possibility of imposition of martial law without the approval and consent of the judiciary.
He, however, added that the present tense situation was produced by the government and in this situation some quarters wanted a clash between the institutions by threatening them. Aitzaz said marshal law was always imposed with support of judiciary but this time judges had repeatedly warned that they would not support any such move. He suspected some hidden hands were forcibly making politicians feel threatened from the army to achieve their personal goals.
Addressing the seminar organised under the aegis of Markazia Majlis-e-Iqbal at Aiwan-e-Iqbal here on Saturday, Aitzaz categorically said the army should be under the control of democratic rulers in the country.
He said Quaid-e-Azam had a bitter experience in 1948 when General Grassy refused to obey his orders. Discussing the Kargil expedition he said the war was initiated by the army itself and after that the then military leadership criticised the prime minister of the time for not endorsing the act. He further said Musharraf then advised Nawaz Sharif to go to US president Clinton for the resolution of the conflict. He also criticised the government on its contradictory statements about relations with military in ongoing political crisis.
“It seems suspicious when PM Gilani says that military is controlled by civilian leadership and contradict his statement the very next day by saying that the military is out of his control,” he said. In fact, military had never been in civilian control but civilian governments were controlled by military, he added. Citing Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s view, he said the supremacy lied with the constitution and courts not with civilian government or military. Discussing Jinnah’s ideas on relation of religion with state affairs, he said Jinnah had dreamt of a state as loving for its citizens as a mother without any discrimination of creed, color, race or religion.
The PPP leader praised Imran Khan however he denied any possibility of joining his party on Saturday. “December 25 rally of PTI in Karachi will be a historic gathering,” he added.
Giving his reaction over Javed Hashmi’s joining PTI, he said Hashmi had left his party when it was in power so it would be unfair to suspect his intentions. However, he said, the decision was not a verdict against PML-N.
Pakistan Today Editor Arif Nizami said Pakistan had gone far away from the ideas of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He said neither the current parliament was following the principles laid down by founder of Pakistan nor the army was loyal to the role perceived by him. Criticising both major political parties PPP and PML-N, he said government of PPP had been on the mercy of military up till now but the party had never retaliated and PML-N was also confused over the role of army in politics.
Renowned journalist Iftikhar Ahmad speaking on this occasion also said Muhammad Ali Jinnah wanted military under the control of executive. He said the words of military oath in 1973 constitution were different from Quaid’s ideal.
Analyst Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi, columnist Mujeeb ur Rehman Shami and president Markazia Majlis-e-Iqbal Mian Afzal Hayat also spoke on the occasion.
