March 15, 2007	Thursday	Safar 25, 1428

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PESHAWAR, March 14: The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) has criticised the government over the “chief justice affair” and asked the authorities to refrain from making the country “a laughing stock in the comity of nations”.

Speaking at a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday, PPP Provincial President Rahimdad Khan claimed that the military rulers had turned Pakistan into a “banana state” where all sorts of objectionable practices had become the norm.

On the occasion, lawyer Mohammad Essa Khan announced that he was joining the PPP.

The PPP leader recalled that when Winston Churchill had been asked about the future of England in the wake of Hitler’s attack on London, he (Churchill) had said that as long as judiciary was intact England had a bright future. Mr Khan asked rulers to learn from Mr Churchill and respect the judiciary.

He lauded Mr Essa Khan’s act of joining the PPP, saying that it was the only political force which had steered the country out of deep political crises and it still had the capacity to put the country back on the constitutional track.

He claimed that the people were with the PPP but a handful of rulers were opposed to it. He said the PPP would not strike any deal with the rulers because it had a great following of its own.

He said “wrong policies” of the present regime had made the life of the people miserable and they had lost the purchasing power because of high inflation.

Mr Essa Khan, a senior advocate and supporter of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazal), said he had closely followed the policies of the JUI which, he claimed, had acted against the will of the people and supported the present regime.

He said he would continue the struggle under the leadership of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto. Despite their “negative efforts,” the rulers had failed to end grassroots support of the PPP across the country.

PPP Provincial Senior Vice-President Syed Qamar Abbas, Information Secretary Arbab Alamgir Khan, Syed Ayub Shah, MPA Syed Zahir Ali Shah, Israr Khan Nahaki, Yaseen Khan Khalil and a large number of PPP workers were present on the occasion.