LAHORE, April 27: After losing a well-fought legal battle in the Supreme Court, the ARD declared here on Saturday that it would continue its political campaign against the referendum, with Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan insisting that Gen Pervez Musharraf was not qualified to become president as long as the Constitution was not abrogated.

At a well-attended public meeting at the sprawling Minar-i- Pakistan lawns, the Nawabzada said he was now taking the matter to the people’s court.

Supporters of various ARD components had come from various areas of Punjab despite several complaints that many of them had been stopped by the police on way, ostensibly, to keep the attendance thin.

Leaders of all ARD components addressed the meeting, held to match with the one addressed at the same place by Musharraf on April 9. A recorded message of former prime minister and PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto against the referendum was also played. She underlined the need for unity among all parties for a joint struggle for democracy.

Another former premier Nawaz Sharif talked to the Nawabzada by phone when the speeches were going on and congratulated the senior leader for organizing a successful meeting.

The meeting started with a thin attendance three hours after the scheduled time. However, it grew in size as it progressed. The crowd was very responsive. Banners inscribed with slogans in favour of the PPP and the PML leaders and against Musharraf had been displayed in large numbers.

The PPP and the PML(N), sworn enemies till a couple of years back, showed an unbelievable unity at the meeting and supporters of one party joined those of the other in raising slogans in favour of both the former premiers, now abroad for varying reasons.

Derogatory slogans in unprintable language were raised against Musharraf and the judges.

The Nawabzada said the ARD did not recognize the referendum as the constitutional way for the election of the president. This method, he asserted, was not used in any democratic country anywhere in the world to elect a president.

He asked the participants if they accepted Gen Musharraf as their president. The question was responded with a vociferous ‘no’.

The Nawabzada said Gen Musharraf was at war with all sections of society, and to defeat him the nation was fully united.

He demanded of the government the formation of an independent election commission and an interim government of national complexion to ensure free and fair elections.

PPP Senior Vice-Chairman Makhdoom Amin Faheem said of the Supreme Court judgment that a society without justice could not think of independence. “The justice in Pakistan is under detention and Saturday’s (Supreme Court) verdict substantiates this assertion.”

The PPP leader said Ms Bhutto would certainly come back to Pakistan and lead a struggle for democracy. He believed that the dawn of democratic era was not too far.

PML(N) Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq said it was for the army to decide whether it wanted to endanger the security of the country to prolong its rule. The army must know that the nation was not with it anymore and schism was not in the national interest, he contended.

He said the PML(N), the PPP and the Jamaat-i-Islami were one and they had to work together. Each party, he emphasized, would have to let the other complete its constitutional term in case it got an opportunity to come to power.

PML(N) Secretary-General Saranjaam Khan said the three parties should work together to defeat, what he called, turncoats in the October elections.

ARD Secretary-General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra criticized Musharraf for allowing foreign forces to use Pakistan’s territory to overthrow an Islamic government in Afghanistan. “This is a matter of shame for us.”

He demanded the establishment of an interim government to ensure free and impartial elections. He also sought the release of all political leaders arrested on various charges.

ARD Information Secretary Syed Zafar Ali Shah, an advocate by profession, alleged that Musharraf had subjugated the judiciary.

PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan, who has been counsel to both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in various cases, was very happy over the signs of unity between the PPP and the PML(N). He believed that with the return of democracy both the parties would alternate each other in power.

He made it clear that struggle for a democratic rule did not mean the replacement of one general by the other.

As for the government’s decision to take ballot boxes to the electorate on the referendum day, he said this was done in view of the voters’ indifference to the exercise by which Gen Musharraf wanted to get himself elected president.

He said despite the steps being taken for the convenience of the voters, nobody would like to vote for the general.

He raised slogans in favour of both the former prime ministers.

Punjab PPP President Qasim Zia, Sindh PPP leader Qaim Ali Shah, PML(N) leader Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa, Khwaja Saad Rafiq, Tehmina Daultana, Munir Ahmed Khan, Syed Munir Gilani, Pir Nau Behar Shah, Naveed Malik, Mian Misbahur Rehman, Haji Imdad Hussain, Salimullah Khan, Haji Fazle Karim and Haji Abdur Razzaq also addressed the meeting.