March 07, 2007	Wednesday	Safar 17, 1428

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MUZAFFARABAD, March 6: Hundreds of people held a march here on Monday to protest against official plans to relocate the capital.

“No to capital shifting”, shouted young participants of march which started from Upper Adda and concluded outside the press club after passing through various roads of quake-hit town.

The march was the latest in a series of peaceful protest programmes which local political and religious leaders and representatives of students, traders and lawyers’ organisations had chalked out after AJK Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan had refused to withdraw his statement regarding the relocation of capital.

Outside the press club, a number of people delivered speeches and most of them accused the prime minister of vitiating the peaceful atmosphere by dragging settled issues into controversy.

The prime minister, they said, was giving impression that the ‘powers that be’ were supporting his move and that was a very dangerous thing on his part.

The speakers urged Islamabad to take immediate stock of the alarming situation before it could go out of control.

Ruling Muslim Conference MLA Raja Farooq Haider and opposition People’s Muslim League secretary-general Khawaja Farooq Ahmed announced on the occasion that a representative delegation would call on President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to apprise them of the repercussions of Sardar Attqiue’s announcement.

Prominent among others who spoke on the occasion were People’s Party MLAs Chaudhry Latif Akbar, Mian Abdul Waheed and Hanif Awan, PML MLA Chaudhry Mohammad Rasheed and MC (Haqiqi group) MLA Noreen Arif.

Meanwhile, heads of the mainstream political parties have also opposed prime minister’s plans to relocate the capital saying they would not let it materialise.

They also said that the plan was in fact an attempt to plunder money meant for the rehabilitation of quake survivors.

“Sardar Attique is pursuing the issue of capital’s relocation to divert people’s attention from the corruption he and his team are involved in,” said PML president and former AJK prime minister Barrister Sultan Mahmood.

Talking to Dawn, he said Sardar Attique was sowing hatred among the people of different AJK districts.