ISLAMABAD, July 23: The first meeting of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the newly-formed All Parties Democratic Alliance (APDM) ended here on Monday without announcing any action plan for the future.
The participants of the meeting merely hailed the Supreme Court’s decision of reinstating the chief justice. They also condemned the government for carrying out the Lal Masjid operation.
Briefing newsmen after what appeared to be a lacklustre meeting, JAC convener Raja Zafarul Haq said those who attended it had finalised the arrangements for the public meetings to be held in Quetta and Rawalpindi on August 9 and 14, respectively.
Mr Haq, who is also the PML-N chairman, told reporters that they had decided to form provincial coordination committees to chalk out plans of action for the future. He said the APDM would also hold public meetings in Karachi and Peshawar, but their dates would be announced later.
Repeating their demands, the APDM leaders said they would request the Supreme Court (SC) to hold an inquiry into the Lal Masjid operation under a senior judge. They reiterated that the APDM would move the court against the killing of over 40 people in Karachi on May 12.
The APDM leaders, after an informal meeting on Saturday, had announced that they would file major constitutional petitions before the SC, challenging various acts of President Gen Pervez Musharraf. They had declared then that the real test of the independence of the judiciary was yet to come. They had also announced that many important decisions would be made at Monday’s meeting.
The APDM leaders said they would soon hold a reception for the lawyers who represented Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in his petition before the Supreme Court. Responding to a question on effectiveness of the APDM in the Sindh province in the absence of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), Ayaz Palejo of the Awami Tehrik said the party which would not come up to the expectations of the people of Sindh would become irrelevant.
Those who attended the meeting included Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal President Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Awami National Party leader Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Secretary-General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and MMA leader Liaqat Baloch.
