ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Muslim League(Nawaz) Quaid and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said Tuesday that without upholding the ‘sanctity of vote’ the country could not be saved from plunging into disarray and chaos and asked the people particularly youth to come out and join him in the campaign for restoring the respect of public mandate.

Addressing a seminar organised here in federal capital on issue of ‘sanctity of vote’ PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif gave a detailed overview of country’s chequered political history where the public mandate had been tampered with blatantly and democratic order was stampeded every now and then.

The seminar was also addressed by Pakhtunkhawa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, National Party chief Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, Awami National Party leader Mian Iftikhar Hussain and others.

Nawaz said setting aside his lifetime disqualification on a trivial matter he had launched the movement for restoration of sanctity of vote as the right to rule the country rests with the people of Pakistan and warned that if this practice was not stopped the country could land into some massive chaos and disorder.

Nawaz said since the creation of Pakistan no elected prime minister had completed his mandated constitutional term and overall 20 prime ministers had just ruled the country for 38 years with an average of two years rule by each against the four dictatorial regimes which remained in power for 32 years with an average rule of eight years.

Referring to the martial laws imposed in the country in 1958, 1960, 1977 and 1998, Nawaz regretted that superior judiciary in the country had accepted these military interventions in the name of ‘doctrine of necessity’ and in cases even allowed the dictator to trample with the constitution.

He said the history of the country was replete with the incidents where public mandate was bulldozed and the will of certain forces was imposed on the will of people causing irreparable damage to the democratic order in the country.

Nawaz said he was disqualified for life for not taking salary from his son’s company while the real looters and plunderers of national wealth and those who had abrogated the Constitution of Pakistan were not even touched.

PML-N quaid said without respecting the public mandate the fate and future of the country could not be secured and it would plunge into chaos and disorder and the country’s history was witness to it.

Nawaz asked the masses particularly youth to come forward and join him in establishing the true democratic order in the country and use their power of vote in the upcoming elections for this change.

He said that they would no more let the vested interests to play with the will of the people who must be given the right to rule the country through their chosen representatives and every institution must accept and respect the public mandate and let the public representatives to rule the country.

PkMAP chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai said that the future of the country was in democracy and supremacy of constitution where all the institutions must work within their defined ambit.

He said the things used to derail when the institutions started going beyond their constitutional mandate and meddle in the affairs of other state institutions.

He said when armed forces, judiciary or another institution would overstep from its constitutional limit it would face resistance from other quarters and disturb the equilibrium of system which would not only weaken the institutions but would leave overall negative impact on the country’s progress.

JUI-F chief also expressed similar views and stressed the need of bringing all the state institutions in their constitutional ambit.

ANP leader Mian Iftikhar Hussain grilled the establishment for pushing the political people to the wall and said that only the political people could take the country forward.

He regretted that the forces of status quo were out to weaken the political people and made it loud and clear that in the struggle for establishing a true democratic order all the political forces in the country would stand by Nawaz and his movement for restoration of sanctity of vote.

National Party chief Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo said that it was time for political forces to forge unity against all those who were averse to rule of law and supremacy of constitution.

He said the future of the country was in real and not in controlled democracy for which his party would be standing shoulder to shoulder with Nawaz Sharif.

The other speakers in the occasion stressed the need of establishing true democratic order in the country and said that it was right time to decide that the country would only be ruled through the will of the people and any meddling in political affairs would not be tolerated.