Lahore: Over a hundred of the country’s most influential civil society groups. Bar councils, human rights groups, journalists, editors. Women’s and trade union federations, and leading intellectuals have asked the country’s political parties to talk to each other. They asked parties come to an agreement about how and when elections will be held.
The supporters of the consensus said that a national consensus could be reached in parliament or at an All-Parties Conference. They also said that civil society is ready to help facilitate the dialogue. We can do it as a “concerned and neutral mediator,” according to a statement.
They also offered to set up an informal group of mediators called “The Mediators,” which would work with political parties. To start a process to reach a national agreement on holding free & fair elections for all assemblies on a date.
“Pakistan Bar Council has agreed to host an All-Parties Conference if major political parties answer this call,” the statement said.
Political Crisis
They also said, “The political crisis is getting worse and worse, which is making the economic problems of the masses even worse.” The leaders of the major political parties are going to war, which doesn’t leave much room for talking and making deals.
They asked for a national agreement “before things get out of everyone’s hands”.
The signatories asked for “a non-partisan approach” and asked all political parties, but especially the parliamentary parties, to “drop the current confrontational and intolerant rhetoric and sit down to work out their political differences on the holding of elections in the greater interests of the nation, the supremacy of the constitution, and a mutually agreed upon peaceful democratic transition.”
They also said that all of the parties in the Parliament should get together for an all-parties conference or meet in the Parliament to find a way out of the current political and constitutional stalemate and come to a wider agreement on holding elections for everyone.
They said this was important to “ensure diversity with a mutual agreement on fair play and an even playing pitch for all” so that the people of the Federation of Pakistan could freely choose to give the mandate to their elected representatives.
Some of the people who signed the appeal are Mr. Haroon-ur-Rashid, who is the vice chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council, Mr. Lateef Paleejo, who is a member of the Sindh Awami Tehreek, Mr. Syed Mushahid Hussain, who is a senator for the PML-N, and Mr. Raza Rabbani, who is a senator for the PPP. Other political leaders, veteran journalists, and social rights groups also
