LAHORE, Aug 13: The ARD will celebrate the Independence Day on Thursday (today) by launching a mass contact campaign to revive among the electorate spirit of the Pakistan Movement and prepare them for sacrifices to get back their constitutional rights.

A public meeting at the historic Mochi Gate will mark the beginning of the campaign after which a series of meetings will be held in Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and Rawalpindi on dates to be set by provincial organizations of the multi-party opposition alliance.

Heads of the ARD components took the decision at a meeting under the chairmanship of Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan held at the residence of PML-N leader Begum Tehmina Daultana.

Rejecting the Legal Framework Order, the participants demanded that the 1973 Constitution should be restored as it existed in October 1999, when the PML-N government was overthrown in a bloodless coup.

The Nawabzada told reporters in the presence of other ARD leaders that Gen Musharraf could not become president through referendum and all his claims in this regard were baseless. At present, he said, the country was without a president and since under the Constitution he was part of the parliament, the house was not complete in its composition.

He demanded that election for the president should be held without delay.

The ARD president said a constitutional requirement remained unmet as the president was yet to address a joint session of parliament even a year after its election.

He held Gen Musharraf responsible for the failure of the MMA-government talks. He said before the talks Gen Musharraf had told journalists that the opposition was wasting its time. Then came reports that corps commanders wanted him to continue his political and military roles simultaneously. He said the farce of democracy stood fully exposed with the corps commanders still taking decisions on all important issues.

The ARD chief said opposition parties would not give the president right to sack assemblies or government. Also, he said, they would not tolerate the formation of a National Security Council as it would undermine the authority of the prime minister and parliament.

Through a resolution, the participants warned that Pakistan would be antagonizing the Arab world by sending its troops to Iraq, where resistance was going on against the occupation forces. They also opposed plans to recognize Israel.

Another resolution regretted that Pakistan’s western border had turned insecure as a result of the wrong government policies.

The participants took serious notice of the government’s character-assassination campaign after the Swiss magistrate’s findings against Ms Benazir Bhutto and her spouse.

Holding that accountability was the main weapon every dictator had used against his opponents, the ARD leaders said the National Accountability Bureau should be disbanded immediately.

They also criticized the government for initiating a case against former chief minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif who they said was willing to come to Pakistan and appear before the court.

Expressing concern over the destruction caused by the rains in Sindh, the ARD leaders directed the alliance components to extend all possible assistance to the affected people.

The ARD deferred a decision on inducting four more parties in the alliance.

OPPOSITION LEADER: The Nawabzada said that PPP leader Makhdoom Amin Faheem had been nominated opposition leader and Begum Tehmina Daultana as deputy leader in the National Assembly.