May 20, 2006	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 21, 1427

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LAHORE, May 19: Abid Hassan Manto, convener of alliance of seven left wing political parties called Awami Jamhori Tehrik (AJT), has announced to participate in the coming general elections.

Addressing a press conference on Friday, he said the Charter of Democracy between PPP and PML-N did not represent a “real democratic ideology.”

He said the accord was incomplete owing to non-participation of masses in it while it did not vow to end feudalism in the country.

Manto said that Pakistan was facing three major problems — military intervention, feudalism and influence of radical religious groups. He held the MMA responsible for the 17th Amendment in the constitution.

He regretted that army had neglected its duty to defend the nation. “Now they have become contractors in all civil sectors, including industrial zones, construction works and property.”

Mentioning the role of army in the Defence Housing Authorities (DHAs) and Pakistan Railway, he stated that army grabbed land from simple civilians at a low cost and sold plots at a very high price by declaring them a DHA area.

He claimed that President General Pervaiz Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Salman Shah and other government high-ups were representatives of multinational companies and they were developing ‘a neo middle class’ in the country, which consisted of the servants of those multinationals.

On the occasion, Abid Hassan Manto also announced AJT committee for Punjab, which included Amir Hussaini as convener and Dr Amin as general secretary Muzamal Mukhtar, Ch Ishaq, Asif Ali Sheikh, Ch Imtiaz, Rana Azam, Khalid Mehmood and Shadab Jaffery were also named as members of the AJT committee.