Daily Times

Quetta: The Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMap) organised on Sunday a public gathering at Quetta’s Sadiq Shaheed football ground to commemorate the 45th death anniversary of Khan Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai.

One of the key speakers on the occasion was Abdul Samad Khan’s son and PkMap Chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai. The event drew huge crowds and ardent followers of Abdul Samad Khan’s political and ideological philosophy.

Addressing the crowd, Mehmood Khan Achakzai said: “This is our country and our loyalty is to a federal and democratic Pakistan where equal rights of everyone are guaranteed by constitution, which the state should hold sacrosanct and supreme.” He further added that he believed in non-violence and peaceful struggle but Pakistan needed to be a genuinely democratic federation where people could enjoy constitutional guarantee of their fundamental, political, economic and cultural rights.

He added that no ethnicity, class or individual should be considered superior to others. “And for that reason alone, I am not ready to live my life as a second category citizen.” He categorically stated that no general, brigadier, colonel or any other army personnel had the right to interfere in politics. “You have a specific duty and your role and requirements should be determined by the people of this country.”

He proposed an all parties conference (APC) of the democratic forces to take stock of the situation.

Ackazai expressed his grave concern regarding the ongoing situation of violence and rights violation, particularly in the Pakhtun belt. “Our people, lawyers, mosques as well as civilian forces such as Levies are under attack. If anything happens in the future we will hold the security agencies responsible,” warned Achakzai.

The chairman of PkMAP further added that Pakhtuns were not terrorists but love their land. “We should erase these stereotypes and concocted image,” he said. He proposed an international conference to deliberate upon the challenges facing Pakhtuns. Regarding peace in Afghanistan, Achakzai said that in order to establish peace in Afghanistan, sovereignty of that state should be the sine qua non respected by all the powers involved.

While elaborating it further, Achakzai said that the world, including the United Nations, should match its efforts which they did against the USSR in the name of jihad. “They helped to arm and organise jihad against the USSR and now they should also help to reverse that by making genuine efforts for the Afghan-led peace by discouraging foreign intervention in Afghanistan.”

Addressing the gathering, Senator Usman Kakar of PkMAP criticised the current government for its lack of democratic credentials and inefficiencies. “Currently, civilian martial law is in force in the garb of civilian dispensation. Unfortunately, parliament is being tightly controlled and the media is undergoing worst form of censorship,” lamented Kakar.

The public gathering was also addressed by other PkMAP leaders, including MPA Naseerullah Zerai, Abdur Rauf Lala, Babat Lala, Abdur Rahim Ziaratwal and Nawab Ayaz Jogazai.

Published in Daily Times, December 3^rd 2018.