On March 11 2009, Mohammad Sarwar MP held a gathering of British Pakistanis comprising of councillors, members of parliament, the business community, lawyers, political party representatives, civil society, media such as Councillor Mustaque Lasharie, Baroness Kishwer Falkner, QC Sibgat ullah Kadri, Naseem Ahmed Bajwa and many others. The meeting was very well attended with media coverage. The objective was to highlight current issues of Pakistan and to come up with a resolution / message based on the common theme that can be shared with the Government of Pakistan.
All political party representatives were given time to speak. Rabia Zia (PTI UK's Coordinator) stated the following message to the audience:
"""We, the overseas Pakistanis are all working for a better Pakistan, a Pakistan with an independent judiciary and with rule of law. However this has not been the case since the birth of Pakistan 61 years ago.
As a party we have always supported the rule of law & the need for an independent judiciary which in turn is a pre-requisite for 'true' democracy to flourish and survive. With this belief we fully supported the coalition formed as a result of Feb 18 2008 elections where the people of Pakistan were promised the restoration of an independent judiciary & of CJ Iftekhar Chaudhry, including removal of the 17th amendment, protection of civil rights, free media etc. However this has not happened - the promises & agreements made have not been fulfilled. Thus this has led to the Long March - a lawyers movement which has now become the movement of all Pakistanis where the objective is to hold a peaceful demonstration. Demonstrations and processions are a norm in any democratic society however the Long March is being portrayed as an act of 'civil disobedience' by the Zardari government. I would like to make it very clear that we are all peaceful people with no arms or ammunition, lawyers are non violent and the Long march is a peaceful way to express one's dissatisfaction with the Government's broken promises and not abidance of agreements. Long march is the right of every citizen in a democratic country and should be allowed to happen in Pakistan.
We also strongly condemn the present government's acts of illegal arrests, illegal issuance of arrest warrants against Mr. Imran Khan (Chairman PTI, who has not broken any law) harassment of workers, breaking into our offices, assaulting our workers, imposition of section 144, drone attacks, Governor raj etc. This clearly proves that this government is not a democratic government in any shape, way or form.
This Long march will be a turning point for Pakistan after 61 years and thus it is very important that we are allowed to proceed with it. This will change the direction and shape of things in Pakistan as we cannot let the NRO stand in the way of restoring independent judiciary.
Thus we request Mohammad Sarwar MP and other British Pakistanis who are influential & who are office bearers of the British government to ask the British government to support the restoration of independent judiciary and CJ Iftekhar Chaudhry in Pakistan which in turn will lead to 'true' democracy in Pakistan. We also request for you to convince the Zardari government to allow the peaceful protest & to re-instate the judiciary and Chief Justice Iftekhar Chaudhry."""
The Resolution that was drafted at the end of the meeting captured the key points & demands highlighted in the meeting i.e. the need of a democratic, sovereign Pakistan where there is rule of law; the demand to release all political prisoners, lifting of the emergency imposed in the country via section 144, reversal of decisions taken by the current Dogar courts e.g. disqualification of politicians and the most important one being the RESTORATION OF JUDICIARY TO THE PRE NOVEMBER 3 2007 POSITION.
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