Educationists, politicians say Govt working for creating political harmony in country
PESHAWAR, Jan 3 (APP): A vast majority of politicians and educationists believe that the PPP led coalition government has been trying to create political harmony in the country and was taking the opposition parties on board over issues of national significance.
According to the survey conducted by this scribe, academicians and political leaders of various parties maintained that the present coalition government has been playing sensible and has taken the opposition members of the parliament together in a bid to resolve various problems in consensus and to form a joint strategy on issues of national importance.
They opined that political harmony was the need of the hour as the country was engulfed by numerous crises with speculations of being declared a failed and default state.
Talking to APP here on Friday, Central Information Secretary of the Awami National Party, Zahid Khan said that coalition government in the centre was committed to take all the political parties including opposition on board to resolve the issues being faced by the country. He said that the government invited the heads of all the political parties of the country to form joint policy on the war threat in the wake of Mumbai attack, which amply reflects the will of the government to give equal weight to the views of all the political parties. “This is the beauty of democracy. The country needs political harmony to counter extremism and other threats in order to put Pakistan on the road to progress and prosperity,” Zahid Khan added. Chairman Department of International Relations Peshawar University, Adnan Sarwar Khan said that the PPP government was making sincere efforts to carry all the parties together and the in‑camera session on the war on terror duly supports this as it aimed at creating consensus and joint resolution to counter the threat of militancy. ‘For the first time since the war on terror stared in the wake of the changed world scenario after 9/11, we heard the voice of parliament on the issue and the passing of the joint resolution on combating the menace” he added.
He said that the government dropped the idea of Kala Bagh Dam due to the reservations of the Provinces and extended full support to renaming of NWFP as Putktoonkhwa. “ Even the major political party PML‑N despite quitting the ministries were ruling in Punjab and the Federal government was not creating any hurdles in their affairs, which shows the government’s efforts for political harmony in the country “ he maintained.
Dean Faculty of Management and Information Sciences, Dr. Shahjahan Sayed while lauding the steps of the government to create a suitable environment for resolving all the problems said that these were democratic gestures of the government that indicate their sincere efforts to take the opposition members along.
He also appreciated the in‑camera session to formulate joint policy on the war on terror saying that never before this step was initiated and the credit goes to the present government.
Although the opposition members were creating hurdles in some affairs yet it was also the beauty of democracy and should be taken in positive sense, he added. Dr. Shajahan also mentioned that the ANP has rarely entered in to coalition governments and presently its alliance with PPP was strong and their views were common on almost all issues. Provincial Information Minister, Main Iftikhar said that the PPP government has taken ANP on board on all the major issues and the in camera briefing for the Parliamentarians and the resultant joint resolution helped the ANP government in making headway in the war on terror. “ It was the magnificence of democracy that the opposition members of the parliament were also taken into confidence on issues of national interest and the PPP led coalition government was doing exactly the same”, he added.
The events that unfolded following the cold blooded assassination of Benezir Bhutto and the resultant leadership vacuum and the nine long years of dictatorship in the garb of so called democracy, gave nothing to the nation but for a number of challenges to the incoming government, he opined.
He said that to name few of the challenges that the new government was gifted with were security, load shedding, wheat crises, price hike and economic meltdown and maintained that long term strategies were needed to root out these decade old problems and could not be resolved overnight.
Mian Iftikhar said that the political farsightedness and sagacity of the government’s policies was also reflected in the first state visit of President Asif Ali Zardari to China that remained successful and promised opening up of new avenues of success for Pakistan. Moreover, the smaller Provinces have been given their due voice at the highest forums which reflects the Government’s will to take the smaller Provinces together, he added.
He said that the government has been giving due importance to the issues confronting smaller Provinces so as to remove the sense of deprivation among the people.
Chief of his own faction of PPP‑S, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao maintained that the in‑camera session on the war on terror and the meeting of the heads of all the political parties with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani were some of the efforts made by the government to form joint policy on these matters in the light of their suggestions. (APP)
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