October 04, 2007	Thursday	Ramazan 21, 1428

LAHORE, Oct 3: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch on Wednesday warned the Pakistan Muslim League MPAs against attending the NWFP Assembly session on Oct 6 to vote for Gen Pervez Musharraf in his bid to seek re-election to the presidency.

Speaking at a news conference, Mr Baloch said the presence of the provincial legislature would make no difference, claiming that the people of the province and MMA organisations would not allow any of the members to enter the assembly building on the day.

“We have made adequate arrangements to ensure that not a single vote is cast on Oct 6,” he said in reply to a question.

He, however, parried questions about the ‘trick’ that Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s party had played in keeping the NWFP Assembly intact despite the All Parties Democratic Movement’s decision about the dissolution of the legislature and a similar resolution made by the MMA itself. He said the APDM’s movement for the restoration of democracy would continue till it achieved its objective.

The MMA leader criticised the government for enacting a law to withdraw corruption cases against PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto. He said the MMA and the APDM had only demanded withdrawal of the cases against leaders registered as part of political victimization and not of corruption charges.

He said it was the Musharaf regime which sent corruption cases against Ms Bhutto to accountability courts and their withdrawal was illegal and immoral. Referring to the so-called national reconciliation policy of the government, he said what the federal cabinet had decided in its meeting, the other day, would become instrumental to serve the vested interests of Gen Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto.

Mr Baloch also made public the `findings’ of the MMA’s commission on Lal Masjid episode, holding President Gen Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao and several other army and police officers responsible for it.

“They are accountable in one of the most tragic incidents of our history in which hundreds of students were gunned down although they were facing no criminal charges nor were they wanted by any court; undoubtedly their killing was extra-judicial”, he added. According to him, the MMA commission had reached the conclusion by interviewing the affected students, collecting ballistic and other technical information and obtaining legal opinion that the students in the mosque and adjacent seminary were killed by using gunship helicopters, rockets, chemical weapons and other means which were usually used in a war against enemy.

The MMA leader said the government had itself conceded that more than 100 students were killed in the episode. But the number of ‘actual’ casualties was much more than the government claim, he added. He said the Wifaqul Madaris record, given to the MMA commission in the process, said about 50,000 students, including girls, were registered by the Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Faridia.

He said about 1,000 students were still missing and this was a big number by any standard.

Mr Baloch demanded the establishment of a judicial commission comprising Supreme Court judges to probe into the incident. He also demanded that political role of intelligence agencies be dispensed with and they be made accountable to the parliament and the judiciary.