PESHAWAR, June 29: The Pakistan Muslim League-N on Sunday observed a token hunger strike to denounce police raids on the residence of party president Shahbaz Sharif in Lahore.

The PML-N workers set up the camp outside the Peshawar Press Club to flay the police raids for the arrest of Shahbaz Sharif’s wife and daughters who arrived in Lahore last month to attend a wedding ceremony.

PML secretary-general Saranjam Khan, provincial chief Pir Sabir Shah, parliamentary leader in NWFP Assembly Anwar Kamal Marwat, President Peshawar city Haji Mohammad Afzal, Rehmat Salam Khattak and others observed the hunger strike.

Speaker NWFP Assembly Bakhat Jahan Khan and MPA Pir Mohammad Khan visited the camp.

Talking to newsmen, Pir Sabir Shah said the police raids were a violation of human rights. He called upon democratic forces to take notice of the dictatorial measures adopted by the military government.

He feared that this action could lead to some more abominable measures by the rulers.

The PML-N leader alleged that the government wanted to harass women members of the Sharif family on the pretext of their over-stay in Lahore, but the action smacked of the cowardice of the rulers and their allies.

He said the rulers were leading the country towards a greater catastrophe by resorting to gag voice of dissent and weeding out political culture from the country.

The hapless women, he said, were being considered a challenge by the rulers. The police raids on the Sharif houses had exposed the real face of the rulers, he added.

He warned the rulers to desist from harassing the women as the nation knew who had violated the law.

The rulers, he said, could not hoodwink the people in the name of law, which they (ruler) themselves had violated and establish a dictatorship.