QUETTA: Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai has said that those who violate the Constitution should be awarded exemplary punishment.

Addressing a press conference at the Quetta Press Club on Sunday, he said: “The Constitution of Pakistan defines limitations for all the [state] institutions to work within their domains. The same Constitution states that parliament is the centre of power. However, deplorably, our current parliament is a ‘selected’ one.”

NO COMPORMISE ON DEMOCRACY

In an apparent reference to the government move to provide parliamentary cover to the extension in the army chief’s tenure, Mr Achakzai said: “Those who coined the term ‘selected’ [for the prime minister and parliament] after the last general elections and other parties are now talking of an amendment in the same parliament. But they must remember that history is brutal and it does not like dishonesty.” The PkMAP leader said it was the obligation of every institution, including the army, to abide by the Constitution as it builds up trust between the state and the citizens of Pakistan.

“If this country is run according to the wishes of its people, they will stand by the state of their own free will,” he said, adding: “It is my and my party’s point of view that in every government department, including the army, if someone completes the term, he/she should go.” Welcoming the verdict in the high treason case against Gen Musharraf, he said the former dictator was behind the killings of Nawab Akbar Bugti, lawyers and the May 12 violence. “He [Musharraf] did not even allow Nawab Bugti’s family members to bury him and offer prayer for his soul at the graveyard,” he added. “Like Gen Zia, Musharraf had said that he would throw the Cons­titution of Pakistan into the dustbin,” he said.