March 22, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 2, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, March 21: Rivalry among opposition parties was loud and clear on Islamabad’s Constitution Avenue on Wednesday when they gathered outside the Supreme Court for a common cause but took different paths, punctuating their criticism of the government’s alleged assault on the judiciary with mutual recriminations.

What was supposed to be a show of support for suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry gave a hint of things to come later in this election year on a day dominated by two main rivals — the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), the alliance of six Islamic parties.

As the political parties, carrying their own flags, held separate meetings, taking advantage of an unusual leniency shown by the government, the black-coated lawyers too had their own show as part of their nationwide protest against the use of police violence against them and alleged manhandling of the chief justice before he made his second appearance before the Supreme Judicial Council on March 16. They raised several slogans against the government and army, but their one slogan ‘Kale Coat Aur Kali Tie, Musharraf Teri Shamat Aai’ remained the most popular one.

A retired army general and former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief, Hameed Gul, appeared on the scene in uniform threatening that hundreds of thousands of ex-servicemen could join, what he called, the battle for Pakistan.

He said he had come in uniform believing that he was in a battlefield. He said there were 2.2 million retired military men in the country and if they came out, no one would be able to stop them.

The political leaders of all the major opposition parties reached the Supreme Court building in the form of processions in different times and held public meetings keeping themselves at a distance from each other.

Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan reached there with a group of his supporters, but later joined MMA’s rally, which was being addressed by Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Liaquat Baloch.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders and workers arrived there under the leadership of party chairman Raja Zafarul Haq. They also held a separate public meeting, but later their leaders were seen mixing with the leaders of both the PPP and the MMA.

The PPP staged the most powerful and impressive show as a majority of its main leaders, excluding Makhdoom Amin Fahim, and parliamentarians were present. The PPP leaders and workers, led by Senior Vice-Chairman Syed Yusuf Raza Gillani, started their march from the party’s Central Secretariat.

Speaking on the occasion, PPP Secretary-General Raja Pervez Ashraf criticised the MMA leadership for its past role in supporting the military regime.

He said this time they would not allow the MMA to deceive the opposition parties. He said on one hand, the MMA was a part of the government in Balochistan and on the other, they were claiming to be the main opposition in the country.

“We will not let them (MMA) enjoy twice on one ticket,” Mr Ashraf said. The PPP workers also raised slogans ‘Wazir-i-Azam Benazir’.

On the other side of the road, MMA Chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed lashed out at the PPP for speaking against the religious parties. “If they (PPP) don’t want to sit with us, we will see how they will govern (the country),” Qazi said as if he thought the PPP had a chance to come into power after the next election.

He said it seemed that the PPP wanted to come into power with the support of the US without knowing that the people of Pakistan had already rejected the US policies.

Asfandyar Wali of the Awami National Party (ANP) was also seen addressing a small gathering of protesters separately. Prominent among those present on the occasion were Jehangir Badr, Qasim Zia, Naheed Khan, Safdar Abbasi, Enver Baig, Babar Awan, Naveed Chaudhry, Abida Hussain, Fakhar Imam, Syed Khurshid Shah, Khalid Iqbal Memon, Zamarrud Khan, Yasmeen Rehman, Fauzia Habib, Ibne Rizvi, Nargis Faiz Malik, Palwasha Behram, Syed Ibrar Rizvi, Malik Hakmin Khan, Dr Israr Shah and Manzoor Wassan of the PPP; Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Raja Nadir Pervez, Rana Mehmoodul Hassan, Sadia Abbasi and Khawaja Asif of the PML-N and Ghulam Ahmed Bilour of the ANP.