November 3, 2003	Monday	Ramazan 7, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 2: The Quaid of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, has said the struggle against the unlawful detention of Javed Hashmi will be go on at all fronts including the Parliament and the court of law until complete victory.

According to a press release issued here by the PML-N, Mian Nawaz Sharif had telephonic conversation with MNA Maimoona Hashmi, daughter of Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, from Jeddah on Sunday.

Mr Sharif said President Pervez Musharraf and “his puppet government” had failed on all fronts and in a state of anxiety, the authorities take steps they deem fit without realizing their consequences.

He said the patriotic leaders were arrested and treason cases registered against them which showed that the days of the government were numbered.

The PML-N Quaid said every leader and worker of the party was keen to see the institution of the armed forces stronger especially against the enemy but “Pervez Musharraf and his puppet government were trying to involve the armed forces in politics and thereby making it weaker and controversial”.

Meanwhile, Maimoona Hashmi told his leader that she had filed a habeas corpus petition before the Lahore High Court.

Our Reporter adds: The People’s Rights Movement (PRM) on Sunday condemned the arrest of the ARD president, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, and demanded his immediate release and withdrawal of all criminal cases lodged against him.

In a statement, the PRM said the arrest of the ARD president was political victimisation and continuation of a consistent policy by the establishment to destroy the political process through coercion and horse-trading.

It said the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (N) were the target of the larger strategy of the establishment to ensure that the army-made PML government remained in power.

“The PRM believes in the sanctity of the political process and the need for its continuity. In recent times, the ARD, its component parties, and Javed Hashmi in particular, have been opposing the army’s monopoly over the state affairs and resource- allocation.

“This dissent reflects the overall consciousness in the society that army dominates decision-making and has completely sacrificed the public interest to maintain its domination.

“Unfortunately, the ARD and its component parties have not mounted a significant popular movement to this effect despite the high levels of frustration within the general public. Nonetheless, the ARD’s dissent has marked a positive step in the democratisation of Pakistani society.”

The Movement said in recent times, the ARD and the leftist political parties had voiced their principled opposition to the LFO, the army’s support to the US war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the ongoing military operation in FATA, structural adjustment policies imposed by the IFls and the suppression of popular struggles.

These pro-people and fundamentally democratic instances of dissent, it said, will compel the army to retreat from the state affairs without downplaying the army’s role as defender of the country’s borders.