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Pakistan: Civil Society statement urges the protesting parties to enter into a meaningful dialogue with government

24 August 2014

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sacw.net - 24 August 2014

Civil Society urges the protesting parties to enter into a meaningful dialogue with government

Karachi, August 23, 2014:

We, the members of the civil society in Karachi, welcome the resolution unanimously passed by the National Assembly on Thursday, upholding the supremacy of the Constitution and rejecting the unconstitutional demands for the Prime Minister’s resignation by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek.

We also welcome the announcement in Lahore by a representative convention of the country’s lawyers community that has vowed to resist any unconstitutional steps taken in the wake of the sit-ins being staged in Islamabad.

We consider the two dharnas by the supporters of Imran Khan of the PTI and Dr. Tahir ul Qadri of PAT in front of the Parliament and other sensitive offices of the country in Islamabad as “illegal†and their demands as “unconstitutional†. We urge them to immediately call off these protests and enter into meaningful negotiations with the government. The sooner a dialogue is held, the better it will be for democracy and the country.

Besides disrupting normal life in Islamabad, these protests have also caused a political impasse in the country. Not only residents of the federal capital are facing hardships, the participants of the dharna are also struggling with extreme weather and inconvenience.

We also condemn the violence-filled language of the central leaders of these two sit-ins, which may ultimately incite aggressive reaction from the supporters of these groups, who are already frustrated due to the unexpected prolongation of the Islamabad sit-ins. Some incidents of violence have already been reported. Early this week the charged workers of PTI manhandled a female reporter of Geo TV and also damaged the equipment of the channel. We fear more incidents of violence if these protests are not ended soon.

Ends

The statement was issued by a group of civil society members following a meeting held at the HRCP Karachi office on August 22, 2014. The meeting was attended by the representatives of the HRCP, PILER, Youth Parliament, Pak Hotel Workers Federation, Now Communities, PTLIF, SPO, LRC, PNT, CLRWO, National Forum for Human Rights of Pakistan, Centre 50 Plus, Collective for Social Science Research, Takhleeq Foundation, Bilawal House, and the NCJP.