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| April 24, 2002 | Wednesday | Safar 10, 1423 |
Musharraf slams religious parties: Address at Peshawar meeting
PESHAWAR, April 23: Reprimanding his opponents for misleading the people, President Gen Pervez Musharraf said here on Tuesday he had established his democratic credentials by presenting himself before the nation to seek a five-year term and continuation of his reforms agenda.
“The so-called champions of democracy are misleading the nation against the referendum. What can be more democratic than the fact that I am standing here, asking 140 million people whether I should remain the president,” Musharraf, clad in off-white shalwar qameez said at a big public meeting at Arbab Niaz Cricket Stadium.
He was particularly harsh upon religious parties, which, he said, had no right to dub others as un-Islamic. Referring to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, a conglomerate of religious parties opposed to his rule, he said: “We are all Muslims. No one has the right to champion the cause of Islam.”
The organisers had made elaborate measures to make Gen Musharraf’s Peshawar public meeting a success, though the attendance fell short of their own expectations of 30,000 plus. Besides, Nazims from the districts of Charsadda, Nowshera, Mardan, Swabi, Kohat, Lakki, Karak, Swat and even Mansehra had brought processions to the venue. Peshawar’s lone international cricket stadium has a sitting capacity of 10,000 people while the organisers had laid another 5,000 chairs on the field, still there was room enough for people to wander around freely.
The organisers had begun bringing people to the venue of the meeting early in the afternoon though the public meeting began much later in the evening. The president arrived at 6.30pm and began his address at 7.20pm. The attendance started thinning as the evening began to set in and the president was near concluding his speech. More worrying for the people perhaps was the light drizzle that began soon afterwards. “This is the blessing of Allah,” Musharraf said.
PARTIES SUPPORT: The pro-Musharraf political parties also made their presence felt by hoisting flags around the stadium and sending in droves of their supporters with party flags. The PPP (Sherpao) and Allama Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) whose support base in the NWFP is next to nothing, competed with each other in terms of party flags.
Surprisingly though, the PML(Q), whose provincial President Salim Saifullah Khan attended the public meeting, failed to put up any show of strength. There were more party flags of Ajmal Khattak’s NAP and Farooq Leghari’s Millat Party than the PML(Q). Even Imran Khan’s Tehrik-i-Insaf, whose provincial President Nawabzada Mohsin Ali Khan was