NWFP minister calls for talks with army

Staff Report

KARACHI: Senior Minister of the NWFP government Sirajul Haq has suggested the setting up of a Jirga comprising representatives of all political parties to hold talks with the Pakistan Army for the establishment of what he called genuine democracy in the country.

He was talking to journalists on Friday at Idara Noor-e-Haq, the Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) Karachi headquarters He is on a three-day visit to the city.

Prominent among those present were JI Karachi chief Dr Merajul Huda Siddiqui, Nasrullah Shajee, and deputy parliamentary party leader of the MMA in Sindh assembly, and a member the provincial assembly, Younus Barai.

Haq said the MMA-led government in the NWFP was making efforts to effect tolerance among political parties. The government planned to form a Jirga comprising representatives of all political parties in this regard.

Criticising the federal government’s decision to drop religion column from the new machine-readable passports, he stated that Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao said religion column in passports was irrelevant, adding soon the minister would question the logic of having a beard, performing Haj, keeping fast and other basic principles of Islam.

Referring to the army action in South Wazirstan, the minister said not only were the local people apprehensive about the operation, but the whole nation was concerned about it. Talking about General Musharraf’s insistence to hold the offices of president and Chief of the Army Staff simultaneously, he claimed that the whole nation from Khyber to Karachi was unanimous that true democracy and sovereignty of parliament would not be possible as long as he continued to cling to both the posts.

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