LAHORE, Feb 12: PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq says the country’s integrity faces a very real threat and opposition parties have no other option but to launch a joint struggle to dislodge the rulers.

“This country is falling apart. It’s not the question of the PM L-N or of the Jamaat-i-Islami. It’s the question of saving the country”, he said, calling upon the people to come out against the rulers and force them to go back.

Once a few hundred people stand up, the rulers would quit the same day, Raja said on Monday while addressing a seminar organised by his party’s lawyers wing to mark the beginning of the centenary celebrations of the Muslim League whose consistent struggle led to the creation of Pakistan in 1947.

A number of other leaders also addressed the seminar, which lasted about three hours.

A resolution passed on the occasion called upon all opposition parties to get united against dictatorship and wage a decisive struggle. It urged the PML-N leadership to set a date for the multi-party conference.

Raja said the MPC would be hosted by the PML-N. However, he hastened to add that the party would have participated if someone else had hosted it. He said it was premature to say whether the PML-N, the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Tehrik-i-Insaaf would set up a new alliance.

In a stinging attack on all policies of the rulers, the ‘opening batsman’ of the Zia era said if the unity of the country was harmed, nobody would ever be able to compensate the loss.

He likened the prevailing situation in Pakistan to the one the Soviet Union faced just before disintegration. He said once the ideology which kept the Soviet Union afloat had diluted, the nuclear weapons — which were more in numbers than the US possessed — and a strong army could not prevent the collapse of the Communist giant.

In his words the role of the people at the helm of affairs in Pakistan was no different from that of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union.

The PML-N leader said the inter-provincial disharmony and the way leaders like Akhtar Mengal were being treated did not augur well. He called for more provincial autonomy to satisfy the smaller federating units.

Referring to the declaration released at the end of the just concluded judicial conference in Islamabad, Raja said in fact it contained the ‘screams’ of the judiciary to get what it did not have at present — independence.

Himself a lawyer, Raja said this was the first time that the judiciary had made such a demand. “We should support the demand as only an independent judiciary can protect people’s rights”.

He underlined the need for free and fair elections, disagreeing with the parties which have been consistently saying that they would not leave the field go unchallenged.

“If you are willing to contest, but somebody else doesn’t let you in, you will (by default) by approving (the game plan)”, he said, citing the example of the Sindh by-elections which the PPP lost by big margins.

He rejected the assorted formulae offered by Gen Musharraf in an attempt to find an ‘out of box’ solution to the Kashmir dispute. He said New Delhi remained unmoved, and India’s High Commissioner had told him at a recent meeting that the dispute would be over when the freedom fighters gave up their arms and took part in the electoral process. The diplomat, he said, had told him in plain terms that India would not agree to redrawing of its borders.

The PML-N leader said an APHC leader had asked the Indian prime minister as to what he precisely meant by “self-rule”, and in response he was told: “good governance”.

Raja said the Kashmiri people had certainly not made sacrifices to work within the Indian Constitution.

He criticised President Musharraf for projecting Pakistan as an ‘accused’ while discussing the country’s nuclear programme in his book.

Syed Zafar Ali, another central leader, said it was foolhardiness to attach hopes with parties whose survival was based on their political interests. He said free and fair elections were not possible in the presence of President Musharraf.

MNA Khwaja Saad Rafiq said the PML-N would go for confrontation before the polls.

Without naming anyone but leaving no doubt that he was referring to the PPP, Saad said parties which thought power could be regained by relying on the United States should not be taken along. Instead, he said, there were several other parties, which were willing to join hands with the PML-N for a decisive struggle.

MNA Tehmina Daultana said if the situation went unchecked, a revolution would overtake the country which would be beyond the capacity of anyone to control or lead in a particular direction.

Expressing grave concern over people’s silence despite the deterioration of the situation, she said: “Let’s break the silence before it breaks us”.

She said the situation in Balochistan was critical and people openly raised slogans against Pakistan.

MNA Maimoona Hashmi said lawyers should rid the country of dictatorship.

Resolutions calling for the return home of the exiled leaders and release of the detained leaders were also adopted.

Sirdar Zulfikar Khosa, Ghulam Dastgir Khan, Ahsan Iqbal, Zaeem Qadri, Khwaja Mehmud Ahmed, Birjees Tahir, Naseer Bhutta, Arshad Jadoon, Dr Asad Ashraf, Khurran Dastgir, Abdul Kabeer Kakar, Rafiq Rajwana, Khwaja Amer Raza and many others were also among speakers or participants.