LAHORE: Irked at the use of the Charter of Democracy (CoD) for a negative propaganda against the opposition, the PPP hits out at the prime minister for what it says believing in hearsay instead of reading the document.

“Instead of reading the Charter of Democracy, the third important document after the 1940 Lahore Resolution and 1973 Constitution, Imran Khan calls it ‘muk muka’ which is actually reconciliation,” Punjab PPP president Qamar Zaman Kaira told a press conference here on Friday.

Flanked by Chaudhry Manzoor, Aslam Gill, Hassan Murtaza and Malik Osman, he lamented that the document that was making the PML-N and PPP respect mandate of each party even if it was “bogus” like that of the current PTI government, was being used to defame the two major opposition parties.

He said under the spirit of the CoD the opposition was providing an opportunity to the ruling PTI to fulfill its electoral promises instead of working to oust it but the latter was criticising it without pointing out flaws in the document.

Explaining the conditions in which the CoD was signed back in 2006, he said the reconciliation was not secret but had been made a part of the document’s preamble.

He claimed that out of the 38 points of the CoD, 31 stood implemented while the most prominent among those could not be undertaken. These included setting up of the federal constitutional court.

Mr Kaira held former prime minister Nawaz Sharif responsible for most of the failures. “Out of love for [ex-chief justice] Iftikhar Chaudhry, Nawaz Sharif didn’t accept the formation of the constitutional court nor did he agree to form the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Kargil Commission as well as accountability reforms.”

Referring to retired Brig Asad Munir’s case, he said the former army man feared humiliation at the hands of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as the reason of his suicide and said the PPP had repeatedly raised this point.

Mr Kaira claimed that the cases against the PPP leaders had been shifted from Karachi to Islamabad for further defaming them. He regretted that Imran Khan himself was talking of establishing peaceful relations with India but he called it ‘muk muka’ when they (the PPP and PML-N) talked about it.

He told a questioner that the PPP would consider if Opposition Leader in National Assembly invited for a multi-party conference.

The PPP leader condemned the New Zealand terror act and said the party had always been suggesting launching a joint crusade against the terrorist mindset which is beyond the boundaries of religion, language and region.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2019