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| June 14, 2003 | Saturday | Rabi-us-Sani 13, 1424 |
Opposition leaders join AMP hunger strike
ISLAMABAD, June 13: Leaders of opposition parties expressed solidarity with the Anjuman Mazarain Punjab (AMP) by joining a token huger strike arranged by the latter in front of parliament house on Friday.
As the AMP hunger strike entered 26th consecutive day on Friday, its representatives reiterated to continue their struggle till the time the government granted them ownership rights to the land they had been tilling for the last one century.
Leaders of the PPPP, PML-N, MMA, and Tehrik-i-Insaf showed their sympathies for the tenants struggle and staged a brief demonstration to protest against the siege of Okara military forms by rangers and police force.
The opposition present on the occasion included Javed Hashmi and Siddiqul Farooq of the PML-N, Senator Farhatullah Babar, Sherry Rehman, Nahid Khan, Rubina Qaimkhani and Qamar Kahira of the PPPP, Liaqat Baloch of the MMA and Imran Khan of the TI.
Representatives of the AMP informed the parliamentarians of the current situation on Okara military farms. They said 19 villages were still under siege despite a strong tide of public sympathies risen over the last few weeks.
They maintained that army officials were justifying the illegal occupation of farms by referring to a law that was unknown to all but themselves, and were holding tenants responsible for the shooting and killing of fellow tenants.
While expressing support for the tenants’ movement, the parliamentarians highlighted the fact that their protest against the LFO was not separate from the ongoing episode in Okara military farms.
They said by allowing President Musharraf to establish National Security Council, the LFO made its clear that in spite of the democratic facade he had created, the army was not willing to relinquish its control over decision-making in the country.
The LFO, they said, if accepted would formally validate this state of affairs and, therefore, must not be accepted at any cost.
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