Pakistani dissidents give call to overturn anti-democratic policies of Imran Khan
Apr 13, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], April 13 : Prominent Pakistani dissidents said that change in policies must come with the change in government and gave a call to overturn the anti-democratic policies of Imran Khan.
In a statement, South Asians Against Terrorism and for Human Rights (SAATH), a grouping of prodemocracy Pakistanis, expressed relief that the Constitution has been upheld in Pakistan, reported Pakistan Observer.
The dissidents voiced the hope that the incoming government will ensure the granting of all Pakistani people's rights as enshrined in the Constitution.
SAATH noted with optimism Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif's remark that "No Pakistani is a traitor" and said that this was in marked contrast with Imran Khan's tendency to divide the Pakistani people by describing all those who disagreed with him and the establishment as 'traitors' to Pakistan, reported Pakistan Observer.
Meanwhile, SAATH called for the release of all political prisoners, including Pashtun Member of National Assembly Ali Wazir.
"The new government should ensure that the black practice of disappearing people ends," the SAATH statement said, adding, "Those who have been subject to enforced disappearances should be accounted for, and anyone guilty of a crime should be subject only to due process of the law in open, civilian courts."
SAATH said that "It is imperative that the media, both print and electronic, is freed from the chokehold it has endured for the last four years," reported Pakistan Observer.
"The reservations of the Baloch people and other nationalities about Pakistan's central authorities must be addressed and they must become the main beneficiaries of any development in their traditional homeland," the statement added.
According to the SAATH statement, "The ugly noises against our Security Agencies and their Chiefs now being heard loud and clear on the streets and in the media should make clear to all of Pakistan's stakeholders, and institutions that it does no good to engineer politics."
"In the end, a Frankenstein's monster remains a monster that will inevitably turn on its own creator. The people's will and the people's will alone should endure," SAATH declared.
