LAHORE, Nov 29: The multi-party opposition alliance ARD revived its struggle for a representative rule in the country by launching a new mass contact campaign on Thursday and a call by coalition chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan urging important leaders abroad to return home to be able to play their role for the unity of the country and warding off assorted challenge facing it.

The new round of campaign started with an Iftar party organized by PPP leader Rohail Asghar which was addressed by many alliance leaders. The anti-government movement would be accelerated after Eid, the speakers said.

This was the first gathering of the sort after a moratorium of several months during which the alliance quietly fought the battle for its survival, threatened by differences on issues which did not fall in the coalition’s charter. It was because of the conflict of opinion on various issues that the organizational work could not be carried out, as scheduled, and office-bears could not be rotated according to the agreed formula.

The Nawabzada said he was calling an all-party conference to thwart the designs of Gen Pervez Musharraf to perpetuate himself in power and reduce the future elected parliament into what he called an orphanage.

He said Gen Musharraf had become president, set up a national security council and extended to an indefinite period his tenure as army chief. All these steps showed that the general was anxious in prolonging his rule by all possible means.

As for the performance of the government, he alleged that it had failed on all fronts. The country stood isolated, people deprived of security and other problems multiplying.

In such a situation, he said, the restoration of a democratic rule was the only way out. He said the military government had no right to say that it would not allow any particular individual to return to power.

The Nawabzada said it was the exclusive right of the electorate, and nobody else, to decide who should govern the country.

He underlined the need for the formation of an interim government to hold free and fair elections. He said the government had failed to give transparent local government elections and could not be expected to hold free and fair general elections. In his opinion the establishment of a powerful and autonomous election commission was also necessary. ARD secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said leaders who had done something for the country were punished by their adversaries. He cited the example of the late Z. A. Bhutto who was hanged for he had launched nuclear programme. Nawaz Sharif, he said, was banished along with his family after he turned the country into a nuclear power.

Mr Jhagra claimed that the ARD would strengthen with the passage of time as more and more parties were keen on joining it.

Punjab PPP president Qasim Zia said the Iftar meeting would mark the beginning of a new phase of movement against the government. He said the PPP had always waged a struggle against dictatorship and would continue to play its role in the future.

PML(N) vice-president Tehmina Daultana alleged that Gen Musharraf would give the country a system which protected his own presidency first.

She believed that leaders now out of the country would soon come back to play their role in the restoration of democracy.

Leaders of other ARD constituents also addressed the participants.