KARACHI, June 2: The All-Parties Action Committee, comprising 19 political parties of the country, on Monday staged a protest demonstration in front of the Karachi Press Club against the Legal Framework Order, an un-elected president and army’s interference in politics.

A large number of supporters, including women of various political parties mainly sitting on opposition benches in the assemblies, participated in the demonstration and chanted slogans against the alleged unconstitutional acts of the government.

Carrying banners and placards inscribed with various demands and slogans against the LFO, prevailing political and constitutional crisis in the country, maltreatment of some opposition members of the Punjab Assembly, demolition of the headquarters of Mohajir Qaumi Movement- Haqiqi, unemployment and increasing poverty, they chanted hard-hitting slogans.

Women protesters belonging to the MQM-H participated in the demonstration and chanted slogans against an operation against their party and demolition of their headquarters, besides reported arrest and killing of their activists.

Speaking on the occasion, the information secretary of Pakistan Peoples Party — Taj Haider — condemned the present government for its alleged brutalities against labourers, elected representatives and common people and announced that PPP would raise the issues of Okara’s farmers. The issues relating to the LFO and maltreatment of opposition members in the Punjab Assembly would also be addressed.

“We are struggling for the restoration of the real Constitution, against army’s intervention into political affairs of the country and for the rights of common people. Unlike the government officials’ claims, LFO was a problem of the common man and affects the everyday life,” he added.

Bitterly criticizing the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Sindh government, the PPP leader maintained that the operation against MQM-H and demolition of its headquarters amounted to “cruel and retributive acts”, and warned the adviser to the chief minister of Sindh on interior affairs to end his campaign against the political rivals.

“Everybody is aware which party has its offices, established on encroached land and parks in Karachi,” he said, warning that the tradition of demolishing the rivals’ headquarters could prove destructive vis-a-vis law and order in the city.

Rendering full support to the Mohajir Qaumi Movement on behalf of the PPP and Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, Taj Haider announced the continuation of the struggle for superiority of the parliament and the restoration of the 1973 Constitution.

The Deputy Parliamentary Leader of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Nasarullah Shajee, in his address clarified that religious parties had come to an agreement with the government on president’s uniform and LFO and maintained that they would never except the unconstitutional steps to amend the Constitution.

Asking the government to show some flexibility in its stance towards the ‘illegal’ steps taken by President Pervez Musharraf, he warned that if negotiations between the MMA and government failed, the democracy and the country would both be imperilled.

The Pakistan Nationalist Party’s Zafar Taqi Rizvi, Anwar Ahmad Khan Yusufzai of the PPP, Basharat Mirza of the Pakistan Democratic Party, Naheed Afzal of the Tehrik-i-Insaf, Syed Muhammad Agha of the PML (Junejo), S.M. Altaf of the Mazdoor Kissan Party, Abdul Razaq Khan and Miss Fatema Sumbal of the Pakistan Nationalist Party, and Suhail Anjum of the MQM-H also spoke on the occasion. — PPI