07 June 2004 08:11
BB warns of collapsing state institutions
ISLAMABAD, June 7 : Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Benazir Bhutto has
warned that state institutions were collapsing and urgent remedial measures were needed to avert a catastrophe. She
sounded the warning while addressing media in London Monday after several rounds of Party meetings during the last few
days, says a PPP statement. "When men in uniform begin to make assassination attempts against their seniors, it is
a signal of collapsing institutions that calls for drastic remedial action". She said it was a shame that today a
sitting army chief has to confess that his own men in uniform were involved in the two assassination attempts against
him. Those who think that force, aggression, repression and oppression is the answer make a critical mistake, she said,
and added that it was a lesson of history that those who used force and forgo political actions suffer the biggest
setbacks. This is because the power of ideas is much stronger than the power of force. It is hearts and minds that win
political battles. She said that the unelected rulers exploited the war on terrorism to benefit themselves. Suicide
bombings are increasing, people are fleeing homes while mere lip service is paid to fighting terrorism. The former Prime
Minister said that the dictators had a vested interest in creating problems in Afghanistan, in Wana and from time to
time in India to sustain them in power. And they don't care what happens to the people of our country. While the
regime claims to fight terrorism, it inducts into the Cabinet the sons of the Jihadi Generals who created the Taliban
and Al Qaeda and the militants when fighting the Soviet in Afghanistan. While the General claims on the CNN that he is
at fighting terrorism, his handpicked Minister tells the people to turn into suicide bombers. She said that
Pakistan's sense of pride was tarnished by the humiliating debacle at Kargil and the farcical situation in WANA
where a handful of Uzbek and Chechen militants forced the Pak Army into a ceasefire, negotiations and amnesty for
captured Pak army officials. The three near wars with India had dramatised the failure of foreign policy she said.
"This is a situation that demoralizes the armed forces and the country". She said that army chief says he
doesn't want to take off his uniform because he knows that if he does those who put him there will no longer be
under his command and can replace him at will. "He is frightened to take off his uniform despite the public pledges
made". She said that the nation should be spending money on the citizens' welfare and challenged huge military
spending. Billions are being spent on building a housing complex in Islamabad and a new General Headquarters while there
already is a General Headquarters and while they have already acquired umpteen commercial and residential plots without
even dying fighting for the country, she said. "In America and Britain, their men don't get commercial booty
and their families don't become millionaires even when they die. It's simply wrong that we exploit the
resources of our hardworking people to enrich a small coterie in the name of defence". She said that she and the
PPP respected the armed forces and had done more for the armed forces than any other government in the history of
Pakistan. But she said that the PPP rejected the creation of an elite Khaki class created by exploiting the people of
Pakistan. The dictators had brought ruin and shame to the country, she said. The PPP condemned the usurpation of land
that belongs to the farmers of Okara Military Farms, the disappearance of one hundred million dollars of EOBI funds, the
forty million dollars in commissions on buying of forex from the markets and the building of two free houses for one man
because he says he is both President and Chief of Army Staff, she said. We do not have guns, or accountability courts or
National Accountability Bureaus with which to fight the opponents of the people. We do however, have our voice and our
conscience and we will raise it for those dying of hepatitis because of contaminated water, we will raise it for those
dying of thirst because there is no water, we will raise it for those dying because they have no jobs and no hope of
getting one under dictators, we will raise it for the lawyers who are rightfully fighting for justice and we will raise
it wherever and whenever we see wrong being done. We know they will try to silence us. They killed Quaid e Awam to
silence him. They killed many others too. They imprisoned and exiled us to force us to accept an unacceptable order.
These efforts will fail because ultimately it is truth that triumphs. We know that justice will triumph that the people
will triumph because this is the lesson of history. We know we will triumph because our cause is the cause of our
people, it is the cause of morality and doing right, it is voicing the sentiments of the people who are determined to
end their suffering and determine their own destiny. The country is burning, she said. Ms Bhutto called for real change,
which she said can come only when there is a transfer of power from the unelected and unrepresentative rulers to the
elected and true representatives of the people. She said that now there was talk of replacing the civilian fronts for
the regime. The civilians are dummies who have been hired at a fee to pretend they are governing the country. She said
the establishment has been in power since November 1996. Terrorists have been freed from the prisons. The
representatives of the people are exiled or imprisoned or banned from contesting elections. The root cause of the crisis
lies in the strangle hold of the dictatorial regime and the denial of representative government. The former Prime
Minister called upon all the people of the four federating units to unite behind the ARD and demand elections under the
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan open to all political leaders and all political parties through rules that were
applied in every election since 1947 to 1988. These rules were changed from 1990 to rig the elections. The result is a
crisis that threatens the very roots of our sovereignty and independence as a Nation state. Jamalis and Mehars may come
and go, she said. The PPP concern is for the common man, for the trader, the laborer, the farmer, the peasant, the
shopkeeper, the student, the youth, the teacher, the doctor, the lawyer. They are being neglected while power games are
being played at their expense in Islamabad. She said that the PPP worker has a conscience. The PPP worker is dedicated
to an ideology that is the progress and prosperity of the people of Pakistan. The PPP worker, despite the price paid in
personal suffering has made a choice to fight for the highest ideals known to humanity for freedom, for human dignity,
for justice, for enlightenment and for progress. People commit suicides because of joblessness. "It shames me and
undermines my self respect as a citizen of Pakistan when I read of the hopeless and misery of the youth of our
country". She said that each of the missiles that the Khakis fire was brought by a PPP government. The nuclear
program upon which the rulers base Pakistan's security was brought by a PPP government. However, PPP never relied
on force alone as the corner stone of security of the country. It relied on the power of the people to whom God has
blessed the Federation of Pakistan. The people are the real power. Those who are weakening them today are systematically
weakening the country itself, she said. She said that the so called governing Party known as the PML Q and its allies in
immoral defectors are simply a tool to legalize the government of the country by an invisible parallel outfit. The
situation cannot be saved with a simple change of faces. It can be saved with a change in the system to one where power
shifts from the military to the people, she said. "I trust our people. I respect our people. It is for our people
that I am facing the current hardships where Asif Sahib has been in prison for eight years, where my ailing and elderly
Mother, Khatoon e Awal, is spending the last years of her life sitting in exile, where my small children are growing up
in a country other than their own. I will always stand by the people of our country just as they have stood by
me".
(THROUGH ASIA PULSE)
[Pakistan Press International Information Services Limited] |
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