June 06, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 20, 1428

LAHORE, June 5: All the opposition political parties have condemned what they say ‘mass-scale’ arrests of party leaders and workers throughout Punjab and demanded that they all be set at liberty without delay.

The MMA announced on Tuesday that the opposition legislators would hold a demonstration outside parliament on Wednesday (today) to protest against restrictions on the electronic media and arrests of political activists. The MMA and other opposition parties said they were not deterred by arrests.

They announced that they would observe June 7 as a ‘black day’ and the workers would join lawyers’ rallies throughout the province.

MMA president Qazi Husain Ahmad condemned the arrests of the MMA activists. He said in a press statement that the regime was now trying to save its sinking ship by catching on each straw and arrests and restrictions on the media were a major evidence of the regime’s loss of nerves.

He said Gen Musharraf had entered a blind alley and was misusing his authority by employing all the state institutions to save him from the logical end. He said the government would not be able to save itself despite restrictions and detentions and the people would soon get good news.

Other political leaders said the onslaught was illegal and unconstitutional because the workers had committed no offence or breached peace.

They said political activists were being taken into custody for their participation in the lawyers’ democratic movement since March 12 and taking part in peaceful rallies was no offence.

MMA Punjab president Liaquat Baloch told a news conference that the police arrested about 400 MMA activists across Punjab and about 12 of them were district heads. He said the restrictions on the electronic media was a ‘black law’ and the MMA rejected it.

He directed the alliance’s district organisations to participate in the lawyers’ province-wide protest by joining their rallies.

PPP: Pakistan People’s Party Secretary-General Ghulam Abbas asserted that about 500 activists were arrested and their number in Lahore was about 60. He told reporters that the police took into custody hundreds of activists in a crackdown which started on Monday night and was still in progress.

He said the police were conducting raids on the residences of the activists and there were reports that the families were also harassed.

According to Mr Abbas, who said his home had been under the police siege since Tuesday morning, the maximum number of arrests was reported from Rawalpindi where about 200 were taken into custody.

Meanwhile, PPP leader Naveed Chaudhry cancelled his news conference after a police raid at his office near Mozan Chungi where he was scheduled to talk to reporters.

PPP Punjab president Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Mr Abbas said the arrests and raids would not deter the party from continuing support for the democratic movement which was now reaching its cherished goal of restoring the independence of the judiciary and other state institutions.

He directed the party workers across the province to take part in the lawyers rally on Thursday without being deterred by the recent arrests because the success of their democratic struggle was already in sight.

PML-N: Sirdar Zulfiqar Ali Khosa, the PML-N Punjab president, led a protest rally against the arrests and restraints over the electronic media under the amended law, saying the situation had only exposed how unnerved the regime had been since the launch of the democratic movement by lawyers and political parties.

Later, he told reporters that the police had arrested about 100 PML-N workers all over Punjab and this was not the true picture because most of the arrested activists had not been able to contact the party. He said the arrests showed the height of the regime’s sense of insecurity as history was witness to the fact that the governments used restrictive measures towards the end of their rule and the Musharraf regime had also shown identical signs.

He also directed the party workers to participate in the lawyers’ rallies.

PTI: The Punjab organisation of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf alleged that the police arrested 50 of the party activists in raids conducted since Monday evening.

Punjab secretary-general Amin Zaki said in a press release that the PTI was not deterred by intimidatory tactics and would participate in the lawyers protest rallies on June 7.

LPP: The Labour Part Pakistan held a demonstration against the arrest of its secretary-general Farooq Tariq. Ms Shahtaj Qizalbash, the chairperson of the Joint Action Committee for the People’s Rights and Pakistan Social Forum secretary-general Irfan Mufti condemned the arrests and restrictions on the media.

They demanded the release of the LPP leader and other political activists.