PESHAWAR, Feb 16: The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy on Monday warned that Gen Pervez Musharraf and his 'sycophants' would be tried if anything happened to Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan and his detained colleagues.

Speaking to a sizable gathering of ARD workers here at Chowk Yadgar, PPP MNA Naheed Khan alleged that generals were responsible for transfer of nuclear know-how to certain countries. Nuclear scientists had been made scapegoats, she said.

Criticizing the military's role in the past, she said the top-brass hanged the first facilitator of the atomic programme, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and now, she claimed, generals wanted to eliminate Dr Khan.

Nawaz Sharif, she further said, had been sent into exile for allowing the first test of Pakistan's nuclear device. Ms Khan said the present government had been keeping Asif Ali Zardari in detention though it had failed to prove even a single case against him.

Senator Safdar Abbasi demanded that the government should facilitate former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in their honourable return to the country.

Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti, Khwaja Yawar Naseer of the PPP and Haji Mohammad Afzal of the PML-N also spoke. They asked the government to hold fresh elections and transfer power to elected representatives, which, they said, was the only way to pull the country out of the crisis.

They criticized the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and held it responsible for strengthening dictatorship by striking a deal with the government on the Legal Framework Order.

They said the MMA had, in fact, stabbed the opposition in the back. Earlier, Ms Khan, Mr Abbasi and other leaders visited the ARD's protest camp at Nowshera.