RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: The Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani on Friday said that the country has seen “18 prime ministers de-seated” and all this was the powerful establishment’s plot throughout.

In the same breath, he continued that the history of the country had been replete with interference from non-democratic forces, but democracy finally seems to be taking root.

“It was a well thought-out plan; however, they did not anticipate that democracy would slowly take roots in this country. We saw when Yousuf Raza Gilani was removed from power, a new prime minister took his place; the same happened when Nawaz was recently removed,” Rabbani added.

He expressed these views at a ceremony held in connection with the launch of a novel “Judge Sahib”, written by Ashraf Shad at Lok Virsa on Friday.

Reiterating a point made last week in Senate, he said that all pillars of the state need to come together to solve the country’s problems as “enough games have been played with this nation.”

He further stated that Pakistan’s ideology was changed and twisted into something which it actually was not and the idea of a welfare state was turned into the idea of a national security state.

The chairman Senate somewhat spoke the language of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif about the recent political turmoil, and said: “If the government and those in power are not taking the country in the right direction, the common man should rise up and take charge.”

Talking about the Sindh government’s efforts to repeal the National Accountability Ordinance in the province, Rabbani said: “Whenever there is talk about the rights of provinces, people are termed traitors as the centre wants to withhold powers. However, we forget that four of the Quaid-e-Azam’s 14 points were about provincial autonomy.”

“If we call ourselves Pakistanis first, people take offence and say why have we not called ourselves Muslim first? These fads suit the country’s elite,” he added.

“Sindh is not the only province to have done away with the NAB ordinance, but our [the PPP’s] decision was taken to court,” he noted, observing that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had already come up with its accountability setup.

Rabbani said that dictatorial regime adopted a policy of strangulating the culture of literature in the country to press progress thinking and create intellectual vacuum in the country by imposing ban on student unions, trade bodies and tea house culture representing the intellectuals.

He said that time is ripe for taking a decisive step and determine the direction and counter the challenges with unity, “otherwise history will have no mercy on us.”

He said that all citizen are equal according to the constitution, however, unfortunately, a separate category of law exists for common man and the rich and powerful.