JEDDAH, 13 November 2003 — President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has “proved beyond doubt his commitment to democracy” and the opposition has no moral right to question his credentials on this count, said a visiting senior minister from Sindh province.
M. A. Rauf Siddiqui, Sindh’s minister of excise and taxation, said: “It is the opposition not Musharraf that is the main impediment to the effective functioning of parliamentary democracy in Pakistan.”
The opposition has no practical agenda — it rakes up the issue of Legal Framework Order (LFO) unnecessarily in order to make its political presence felt, the minister said.
He said if the LFO was not acceptable to them they should not have participated in the election in the first place. It was through this LFO that the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 and 33 percent of parliamentary seats were reserved for women, he pointed out.
Secondly, the LFO is not new in Pakistan. In 1973, Prime Minister Zukfikar Ali Bhutto made eight constitutional amendments and in 1985 President Zia-ul-Haq conducted elections under his own type of LFOs. At that time, nobody raised the issue, but now the MMA-led opposition says Musharraf is not allowing democracy to prosper. “In fact, the opposition does not want democracy to take roots in Pakistan,” Rauf said.
“We must keep in mind that if Musharraf had any mala fide intentions, he would have continued to rule the country without conducting elections. But he called for general elections and proved beyond doubt his democratic credentials and commitment to democracy.”
He credited Musharraf with what he called the country’s unprecedented economic growth and respectable standing in different world forums. On the contentious issue of Kashmir, Rauf said a great deal of political will and patience was needed from the leaderships of India and Pakistan.
“Kashmir is not a simple issue which can be solved with any magic wand. It will take time but at last I am sure the will of the people will triumph.”
Asked about the recent arrest of senior opposition leader Javed Hashmi on charges of treason, Rauf, who is also chief organizer of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Overseas Cell, said the charges are of a serious nature and must be probed thoroughly. “Nobody should come in way of the legal process.”
Speaking about his ministry’s performance in Sindh, he claimed that “some of its decisions have provided relief to the general public.” He singled out the move to give small houses and flats permanent exemption from property tax. Widows, orphans and employees who earn less than rupees 24,000 annually have also been exempted from property tax, Rauf added.
Another popular measure was decentralization of the motor vehicle tax collection. Taxes are now collected at all district headquarters unlike before when Karachi was the only collection center.
