22 January 2004	Thursday	29 Ziqa'ad 1424

QUETTA, Jan 21: The Pukthunkhwa Milli Awami Party and the Hazara Democratic Party took out a procession on Wednesday to highlight problems faced by the people in obtaining computerized national identity cards and against price hike.

The protesters were holding placards and banners inscribed with slogans condemning the National Database and Registration Authority and the government for their alleged anti-Pukhtun policy.

They held a public meeting on Shahra-i-Adalat, where leaders of the two parties alleged that thousands of citizens had been denied NICs to deprive them of their rights.

They criticized the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal for cooperating with the military dictator for the passage of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. They said it provided a perpetual political role for the army at the cost of parliament. They said the MMA's decisions had strengthened the military dictatorship.

They accused the Balochistan government of corruption and said the MMA's ministers had been deceiving people in the name of Islam but they had now been exposed.

PMAP's parliamentary leader in the Balochistan Assembly, Abdur Rahim Ziaratwal, MPA Sardar Azam Musakhel and Ibrahim Hazara of the Hazara Democratic party spoke on the occasion.