MULTAN, May 31: The PPP and PML-N organized separate token hunger strike camps on Saturday to protest against the arrests and torture of the Punjab assembly opposition members.

Both the camps were set up at the Kutchery Chowk under the Multan fly-over in front of the district courts. The camps were decorated with banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the Legal Framework Order and the ‘undemocratic’ tactics of the Punjab government to crush the opposition.

One of the banners had an interesting message “the Punjab assembly is not the Zahoor palace of the Chaudhrys of Gujrat.” A competition between activists of both the parties was seen at the camps over chanting slogans against the military rulers whom they called “civilian puppet heads of the governments in the centre and the provinces.”

Prominent among the participants in the PPP camp were Khwaja Rizwan Alam, Tariq Raza Khan, Khursheed Khan, Khalid Haneef Lodhi, MPA Ishaq Bucha, Begum B A Jigar and Saeeda Jamal Labar.

In the PML-N camp, MPA Babu Nafees Ansari, Hafiz Iqbal Khakwani, Allah Nawaz Durrani, Shahid Mukhtar Lodhi, Zaman Shah, Imran Liaquat and Riaz Lateefi were among the protesters.

The protesters also flayed police action against the newsmen covering the Punjab assembly proceedings. They said this treatment showed that the rulers had no regard for any institution in the country.

The hunger strike, which started about 9am, continued till 5pm. Later, activists of both the political parties dispersed peacefully.

A contingent of police and the Elite force remained on guard in the vicinity of the hunger strike camps to avert any untoward incident.

OKARA: The PPP on Saturday set up a protest camp on the GT Road to observe black day against the undemocratic action of the provincial government against the opposition legislators.