March 22, 2002	Friday	Muharram 7, 1423

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LAHORE, March 21: ARD chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan has rejected as an extra-constitutional step Gen Musharraf’s reported plan to hold a referendum during the next few months to have himself elected president.

Never in history has anybody held a referendum for his aggrandizement to a political office, he told a news conference on Thursday, a day before the heads of parties in the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy are due to meet in the city to discuss the situation and work out the conglomerate’s future course of action.

ARD Secretary-General Zafar Iqbal Jhagra and Lahore PPP President Mian Misbahur Rehman accompanied the veteran politician.

The referendum, the ARD president argued, would necessitate a fundamental change in the constitution which the Supreme Court has prohibited the general to effect.

Asked what course of action would the ARD pursue to frustrate the general’s move, the Nawabzada said the matter would be discussed at length on Friday.

Answering a question about the public meeting the ARD has planned to hold at the Mochi Gate on Saturday, the Nawabzada said while all preparations had been completed, the administration had asked the ARD leadership to change the venue or date of the meeting. He said the meeting programme had been given wide publicity and it was morally unjustifiable for the government to call for a change of venue at the eleventh hour.

He said the public meeting would be held at a time when no Muharram procession would be held in the vicinity of the Mochi Gate. Referring to reports that there were differences among the ARD components over the participation of some Jehadi organizations in the public meeting, the Nawabzada said the reports were baseless. No individual, whatever his political affiliation, could be debarred from participating in a public meeting, he added.

The Nawabzada alleged that Gen Musharraf was trying to deprive the PPP and the PML(N) of their leadership by disallowing the two former prime ministers to return to the country. He said the government had planned to set up a “King’s Party”.

Meanwhile, some ARD leaders visited the Mochi Gate in the afternoon to see for themselves arrangements for the public meeting. Parts of the venue were under water, though the public meeting can be held without any problem, subject to permission by the government.

PPP CAMPAIGN: Meanwhile, the Punjab PPP at a separate meeting here on Thursday rejected the referendum idea and vowed to launch a campaign against it.

Qasim Zia presided.

The participants were of the view that a procedure had been laid down in the constitution for the election of the president. They said the party would keep all options open, including legal, to have the move scuttled.

PPP provincial secretary-general Rana Aftab Ahmed Khan and information secretary Naveed Chaudhry told reporters that the general was adopting an unconstitutional procedure to become the president.

The PPP, they said, would take an active part in the March 23 public meeting.