PESHAWAR, March 23: A former speaker of the NWFP Assembly, Abdul Akbar Khan, has said the military rulers have celebrated the Pakistan Day by arresting politicians and denying them their legal right to hold a political rally in Lahore.

In a statement, issued here on Saturday, Mr Khan termed the government’s crackdown on political workers a blatant attempt to prolong its dictatorial rule.

Mr Khan, who is a member of the central executive committee of the Pakistan People’s Party, remarked that it was not the message of the founding fathers of the country to detain politicians on the Pakistan Day (observed on Saturday) and to deny them their basic rights.

He lamented that the rulers had reserved the day for telling “lies and placing a ban on free movement of politicians.”

He said the people should have had the right to celebrate the day by holding rallies and assessing the performance of the rulers but the government had barred the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy from holding a public meeting at the Mochi Gate in Lahore.

Mr Khan accused the government of denying freedom of speech to the people, saying that the people, who had sacrificed for the creation of the country, had been denied all basic political, civil and economic rights.—Bureau Report