QUETTA: Pashtoonkhwah Milli Awami Party Chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai has warned of protest demonstrations across the country if MNA Ali Wazir is not released from the prison.

The PkMAP chief issued the warning while addressing the participants of a protest rally taken out by his party on Friday against the incarceration of Mr Wazir.

The participants, carrying placards and banners inscribed with the demand for release of the detained lawmaker, marched on various roads of Quetta and gathered at Bacha Khan Chowk.

“December 16 is a black day in the history of Pakistan as on the same day Pakistan was dismembered in 1971 and our children were massacred in an attack on Peshawar’s Army Public School in 2014. Unfortunately, on the same day we are protesting for the release of Ali Wazir, an elected member of theparliament. All these catastrophes are the outcomes of the same mentalities and policies which did not change even after so much destruction,” Mr Achakzai lamented.

While regretting that Ali Wazir has been incarcerated unlawfully for two years just to satisfy the ego of the powerful, he appealed to the judges of superior judiciary to act to uphold the basic human and constitutional rights of a citizen.

Mr Achakzai also appealed to the bar associations and members of parliament to raise their voice for the release of the detained lawmaker.

He said that today Pakistan is facing a very precarious situation and the only solution to take the country out of it is to uphold the supremacy of the Constitution and parliament, pluralism and true democracy.

“The so-called war on terror and your [rulers] policy in this regard cost the lives of more than 13 members of Ali Wazir’s family, so what else do you expect from him,” Mr Achakzai wondered.

He appealed to the Pakistan Democratic Movement and PPP to play their role in the release of Ali Wazir. He reminded the PPP that Sindh’s courts had granted bail to Rao Anwar, the ‘murderer’ of 444 citizens, but it’s the Sindh government and judiciary that are bent upon keeping Ali Wazir behind bars.

“In the name of jihad, you gathered the rogues from all over the world in Fata, particularly in Waziristan, and I warned you at the time on various forums, including the parliament, to not play with this fire, but no one paid heed, and today you have a taste of your own medicine,” the PkMAP chief said.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2022