Islamabad-UNS: Chairman of the Tehreek Tahaffuz-e-Aeen Pakistan (Movement for the Protection of the Constitution of Pakistan), Mehmood Khan Achakzai, welcomed participants during the opening speech of a two-day All Parties Conference held in Islamabad under the movement’s banner.
Addressing the gathering he said, “We are all gathered here for a great cause — the supremacy of the Constitution, freedom of the judiciary and media, and the restoration of the people’s stolen mandate.”
He stated that, as everyone knows, on the night of February 8, a brazen robbery of the public mandate took place through money and coercion. Whoever paid the highest price was awarded victory with a check mark. What followed was the auction of the entire state apparatus — consciences, government jobs, and public resources were all put up for sale.
Achakzai said that although Pakistan has existed for 78 years, the nations within it have inhabited this land for thousands of years. This federation is based on a voluntary social contract, the foundation of which is the Constitution — yet today, the Constitution has been rendered powerless and ineffective.
He further stated that after the creation of Pakistan, elections for a new constituent assembly should have been held to formulate a consensus-based constitution. Instead, the country was run under the 1935 Act for nine years, and later new terms and concepts such as parity and One Unit were imposed. This ultimately led to the disintegration of the country.
Achakzai noted that powerful undemocratic forces have treated the Constitution as nothing more than a piece of paper. A political party (PTI) was stripped of its electoral symbol through the courts.
He said the country is engulfed in corruption and misgovernance, with 45% of the population forced to live below the poverty line. State institutions have become paralyzed. If anyone truly loves the country, they must trust its people, grant nationalities their rights over their own resources, and provide them with political and economic autonomy.
He lamented that in regions rich in valuable resources, people don’t even have access to drinking water. Areas in Khyber Pashtoonkhwa and other Pashtun and Baloch regions are routinely subjected to bombardment and shelling. He questioned: what was the fault of the unarmed people of Tirah and the innocent children of Bajaur who were riddled with bullets?
On the first day of the All Parties Conference, opposition parties, lawyers, media figures, representatives, and delegations from various organizations participated.
