PML-N’s expulsion from Senate poll Setback to political system: Rabbani

KARACHI: Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani has said the expulsion of PML-Nawaz from the Senate election race has caused a setback to the country's political system.

He was talking to newsmen after addressing a session of the Asia Peace Film Festival at Expo Centre here on Monday. “The democratic process should continue and all the political forces should take part in the Senate elections. Whichever political party has representation in the assemblies has the right to get representation in the Senate as well,” said the Senate chairman.

Rabbani said the country cannot afford any confrontation and instability at the moment. He said the civil bureaucracy, military, and judiciary should also be held accountable and “the politicians alone should not be persecuted in the guise of accountability.” There should be a single court and a single law for accountability of judiciary and the political forces, he said. He said the National Accountability Bureau must review its own laws and there is a need to reconstitute the NAB. The Senate Chairman said a dialogue should be initiated among the constitutional stakeholders. He said only democracy and the democratic dispensation can wipe out the extremist forces. “If the Parliament is strengthened, all the institutions will work in accordance with the Constitution and this country would emerge as a strong nation,” he said.

Earlier speaking at the film festival, the Senate Chairman said the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto came to the country to render services for strengthening democracy in the country. He said Benazir wanted supremacy of law. “But the country’s aristocracy and the bureaucracy pushed it towards extremism and terrorism as apprehended by Benazir Bhutto,” he said. The Senate Chairman said Benazir wanted to secure objectives through her revolutionary ideology but never compromised on her principles. He said Muslims had no role in complicating the Afghan situation, but the American imperialism worsened the turmoil. Similarly, the big powers played a major role in proliferating terrorism globally.