Clips from Mohsin Dawar's speech at #APC2020.

1/ Mohsin Dawar begins by noting that the "state above a state" exists for the acquisition of not only power but business profit. He says that we should first accept that we are living not in a democracy but under martial law. https://twitter.com/xmahsud/status/1307688166871179264

2/ Dawar suggests that the political movement launched by the APC should be named the Movement to Restore Democracy. He concedes that it was a mistake to accept the 2018 election results unconditionally.

3/ Dawar regrets that political parties didn't support Justice Faez Isa as they should have. Like him, PHC CJ Waqar Seth was punished for his judgment against Musharraf. Journalists were first fired & then slapped with sedition cases. Women journalists are harassed through SM.

4/ Dawar says that PTI & ISPR work together on social media to troll critics. Political workers are slapped with cases ranging from sedition to terrorism to defaming state institutions. Enforced disappearances continue. Actions in Aid of Civil Power Ord was imposed on KP in 2019.

5/ While govt said that it had merged FATA into Pakistan, what actually happened was that the law that was previously specific to FATA was applied to all of KP. Peshawar HC struck it down but govt got a stay through SC. Under what law are internment centers operating, Dawar asks.

6/ Dawar says that ex FATA & Balochistan remain no go areas. Target & custodial killings continue. In N. Waziristan, there was an IED blast & instead of reflecting on their own negligence, security forces imposed collective punishment on locals. Hayat Baloch was murdered.

7/ If IG FC hadn't visited Hayat Baloch's parents to commiserate, it's likely that PTI govt would've defended officers who killed him, as they did after Kharqamar massacre. Dawar says that Generals imposed artificial war on FATA for dollars. Bajwa's business was built after 9/11.

8/ Dawar asks #APC2020 to formulate a policy on the ongoing intra-Afghan dialogue. Khalilzad only visits GHQ, he says, & neither parliament nor foreign ministry knows what our state's role is in dialogue. He's afraid that militants are regrouping so that Kabul can be captured.

9/ Dawar argues that we need not only a revised Charter of Democracy but also a Truth Commission to examine the role of different institutions since 1947, to see who stood for people's rights & who didn't. He says political parties should also reflect on their own mistakes.

10/ Dawar says that political parties need to formulate an aggressive strategy that reflects public sentiments

Cognizant of the dangers this path entails, he ends with Faiz
ہاں جاں کے زیاں کی ہم کو بھی تشویش ہے لیکن کیا کیجے
ہر رہ جو ادھر کو جاتی ہے مقتل سے گزر کر جاتی ہے

First couplet he recited

یوں عرض و طلب سے کم اے دل پتھر دل
پانی ہوتے ہیں
تم لاکھ رضا کی خو ڈالو کب خوئے ستم گر جاتی ہے

And full poem available here https://www.rekhta.org/ghazals/kuchh-mohtasibon-kii-khalvat-men-kuchh-vaaiz-ke-ghar-jaatii-hai-faiz-ahmad-faiz-ghazals?lang=ur

According to http://rekhta.org , Faiz wrote this poem in Montgomery Jail in 1954.

It is an apt choice, as the last time the opposition united in this way, nearly all its leaders were imprisoned on fake charges.

Events traced in this thread on PTM: https://twitter.com/tabinda_m/status/1137315028338728960?s=19