Quetta – Addressing a public gathering on Sunday to commemorate the 45th death anniversary of Khan Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai, he said, “This is our country and our loyalty is to a federal and democratic Pakistan where equal rights of every nationality, ethnicity and minority are guaranteed by the constitution which the state should hold sacrosanct and supreme.”
He further emphasised that he believed in non-violence and peaceful struggle but Pakistan needed to be a genuinely democratic federation where people enjoyed constitutional guarantee of their fundamental, political, economic and cultural rights. He added that no ethnicity, class or individual should be considered superior to others.
“I am not ready to live my life as a second category citizen.”
The PkMAP chief said that Pakistan’s establishment has no 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 said.
Achakzai also expressed concern over the ongoing alleged violation of citizen rights, particularly in the Pashtun areas.
“Pashtuns are not terrorists. We should erase such stereotypes and concocted images,” he said, adding “Pashtuns love their land”.
He proposed an All Parties Conference (APC) of the democratic forces to take stock of the situation, and an international conference of Pashtuns to deliberate upon the challenges currently faced by them.
Achakzai said that sovereignty of the Afghanistan’s sovereignty should be respected by all the powers involved there.
“Conducive environment needed to be created to enable the Afghans to bring peace to their country,” he suggested.
He added that the world, including the United Nations, should start a joint struggle as same as they did against the USSR in the name of Jihad. “They helped to arm and organise the Jihadists 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 Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf’s government. “Currently, civilian martial law is in force in the garb of civilian dispensation. Unfortunately the parliament is tightly controlled and the media is undergoing worst form of censorship,” lamented Kakar.
PkMAP at Quetta’s Sadiq Shaheed football ground organized the gathering. Other PkMAP leaders MPA Naseerullah Zerai, Abdur Rauf Lala, Babat Lala, Abdur Rahim Ziaratwal and Nawab Ayaz Jogazai also addressed the crowd.
They paid tribute to the late Samad Khan Achakzai and underlined the need to follow in his footsteps and political and ideological philosophy.
