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| July 5, 2005 | Tuesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 27, 1426 |
Alliance of opposition parties in the offing
LAHORE, July 4: The Jamaat-i-Islami claims that grand alliance of opposition parties is likely in the current month (July). “You’ll hear a good news about it within July,” says secretary-general Munawwar Hasan who called on Mian Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif in Jeddah and London respectively last week. He was speaking at a programme organized by the Media Elites Forum here on Monday.
Mr Hasan said the alliance would be on one-point agenda of restoring democracy by ousting Gen Musharraf who, was “holding both the offices, presidency and COAS, unconstitutionally.”
Asked if the opposition could resign en bloc from assemblies to pressure the rulers, he said “all is on the agenda.”
He told a questioner that Nawaz Sharif was going to decide that when and how to return.
The Jamaat leader asserted that local forces against the Sharifs would not be able to create hurdles in the PML-N leader’s return.
About local body polls, Mr Hasan alleged that with the announcement of the schedule rigging plan had also been unveiled.
“Allowing ministers and MPs to contest the local polls without resigning from their present offices has opened the flood gate to rigging.”
He expected a one-on-one contest, especially in Sindh, between the nominees of the government and the opposition if component parties of the latter agreed to electoral adjustments at least at 50 per cent seats.
Blaming the MQM for terrorist activities in Karachi, the Jamaat secretary-general said the ethnic group was unceasingly trying to force its rivals take defensive positions and confine them to their homes but the masses were determined to shun the politics of killings and extortionism.
The citizens of Karachi would welcome the new team being led by (former city Nazim) Naimatullah Khan, he hoped.
He demanded that heirs of the slain workers in Karachi should be allowed to register FIRs even if they nominated the governor of the province in it.
He recalled that murder cases were registered against governor Ishratul Ibad in five police stations of Karachi though these were later withdrawn by the government when he was posted to the office.
Mr Hasan said Ibad had embarrassed the nation by taking financial aid from the UK even though he was serving as governor of Sindh.
As Ibad had not dared to tender his resignation, (ruling PML’s president) Chaudhry Shujaat Husain should have terminated the governor for earning a bad name for the country, he said.
The Jamaat leader told reporters that his party would hold rallies and protest demonstrations on July 13 to mark the Kashmir day being observed since 1931.
He condemned Mirwaiz group’s APHC leaders’ recent visit to Pakistan as a step to fortify the cause of India on Kashmir issue.
He said Islamabad had deceived Kashmiris by facilitating the visit and taking a U-turn on its decades old stance on the dispute.
He alleged that Gen Musharraf had taken steps to dilute the issue instead of condemning New Delhi for its atrocities in the most densely militarized area (held Kashmir) in the world.
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