LAHORE – PML-N President Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday that the door to inroads into the civilian rule could have been closed for good had the dictators been punished under the law of the land.
“Had the dictators who flouted the Constitution been tried in accordance with strict legal demands, the doors to future adventurism would have been closed forever,” Nawaz said in his message on the eve of October 12, when his government was overthrown by Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf in 1999.
The PML-N president said that Pakistan today was facing many problems, such as bad governance, inflation, unemployment, loadshedding and terrorism, all because of wrong priorities and anti-people policies of incompetent rulers. “I believe that the people of Pakistan will eventually overcome these difficulties and the nation will bring about a positive change through the power of vote,” he maintained.
Nawaz viewed that if a state lost trust and support of its own people, it became weak and defenceless before the international community. “Under the dictatorial rule, the state does not belong to the people, but to an individual, who is neither an elected representative nor accountable to the parliament,” he held.
Nawaz termed October 12, 1999, a black day in Pakistan’s history. “On this date, a dictator snatched democracy from the people and ran the country on his whims and wishes, paying no heed to the Constitution and the law of the land,” he added.
The unconstitutional and illegal action of the dictator not only removed an elected government but also rendered the state weak and defenseless, regretted the twice former prime minister, adding that the dictator threw the country into a quagmire of problems.
Nawaz asserted that the people of Pakistan, through their determination, political consciousness, faith in democracy and belief in the political teachings of Quaid-e-Azam, eventually got back the Constitution and democracy. “Significantly, the elected parliament did not ratify the unconstitutional steps taken by the dictator,” he said.
Nawaz further said that the people of Pakistan were politically mature and conscious, and had an unshakeable belief in constitutional and democratic process, due to which they could be included among the most democratic citizens of the world. “The people of Pakistan believe in a democratic change through ballot instead of brute force,” he said.
The PML-N president said that the most pertinent lesson of October 12, 1999, was that the objective of change could only be achieved through the power of vote, and not through power grabbing. “It is a matter of great satisfaction and happiness that, like other civilised and democratic nations, Pakistanis too have adopted the legal course,” he concluded.
In a separate message on October 12, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said that derailing of the democratic process was a conspiracy aimed at creating hurdles in the way of national progress and prosperity, the consequences of which were still being faced by the nation. He also paid rich tributes to the political forces, particularly PML-N leaders and workers, who faced atrocities during Musharraf’s regime.