ZULFIQAR AHMAD

ISLAMABAD: Outgoing MQM Senator Col Syed Tahir Mashhadi (retd) on Wednesday bid adieu to Senate with a scathing attack on the military, saying its alleged involvement in enforced disappearance of citizens coupled with behind the scene political engineering and manipulation is not a good omen for the finest army in world.

In his farewell speech, Mashhadi who is retiring after serving for three terms – 18 years – in the Upper House of Parliament, said that for a retired soldier like him, nothing is more painful than seeing his former institution in such controversies.

“Our military is one of the finest militaries in the world and our people love it to the moon and back. And you hear these controversies – don’t know how correct it is – it really hurts,” he regretted.

The MQM senator also severely criticized the judiciary, and said the judges do not speak but their judgments do, adding, “In a country like ours, it is an irony that judgments are silent but our judges speak – a precedent which is not good for the future of our beloved country.” “When we grew up, when heard and read about judges quoting Aristotle, Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Confucius, but now it is very sad that Mario Puzo is quoted who penned novel Godfather,” he lamented.

He emphasized that there is a need to pay attention to what kind of remarks are being passed against the politicians, parliamentarians and the Parliament itself – the institution which is the framer of the Constitution.

Senator Mashhadi regretted while the Parliament is supreme but when it would and all and sundry give up powers and when the powerful would shed powers, then the most powerful would gain more power. “When we don’t want to empower ourselves and look for powers to appoint an SHO and make someone a councillor. There is a need to improve our own standards,” he contended.

“And when the executive of 200 million people becomes weak itself and can’t remove 200 people and approaches the army to talk to them and remove them,” he lamented.

Another outgoing senator of Awami National Party (ANP) Ilyas Ahmad Bilour, who remained member of the House for three terms, came down hard on the handful elite of the country which, he insisted, were the reasons behind the Fall of Dhaka.

He maintained that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Punjab and General Yahya were not behind disintegration of Pakistan, as it was the handful opportunist elite that paved way for Dhaka Fall, adding Justice Munir verdict had set the first step towards the Fall of Dhaka.

He also questioned how late Khan Wali Khan was brought back from London to meet Sheikh Mujibur Rehman and played his role in settlement of the crisis, who went to Dhaka and was taken to the Sheikh Mujib’s residence on his vehicle. But then unfortunately, he noted, dramatic things happened, which led to dismemberment of Pakistan. “Mujib told Khan Wali Khan that they had made up their mind to resolve the crisis through bullets and he (Wali) tried to resist it and wanted reversal of this decision,” the politician from Peshawar recalled.

He also referred to recovery of arms from the Iraqi embassy, which was recovered by Major Salahuddin Tirmizi and the National Awami Party was blamed for it.

He blamed the elite for forcing Bhutto to send packing two provincial elected governments and arrest of 5000 political workers.

Wali Khan, he pointed out, had clearly stated in Peshawar in 1982 that the fire ignited in Afghanistan, would one day cross the Attock Bridge and reach across Pakistan and it happened. The ANP senator wished that the Panama tangle should have been resolved in the Parliament but some parties including PML-N did not agree to it. He warned against the rollback of the 18th Amendment, which gave the provinces their rights. “Rolling back of the amendment will mean rollback of Pakistan and the provinces will take their due rights,” he emphasized.