November 06, 2007	Tuesday	Shawwal 24, 1428

LONDON, Nov 5: The PML (N) is contacting leaders of all the political parties in the country, including Benazir Bhutto, to discuss the possibility of putting up a united front, along with the lawyers and the media, against what it termed “Musharraf’s second martial law”.

PML (N) president Shahbaz Sharif talking to the media here on Monday said that time had now come for all political parties to shun their differences and get together on one platform against “Musharraf’s illegal, unconstitutional and immoral dictatorial rule”.

He read out a long list of judges, lawyers and political leaders who, he said, had been arrested and expressed his dismay that as many as 60 judges had been incarcerated “which is perhaps a record for even a Pakistani martial law regime”.

He asked the world powers who had been ‘supporting Musharraf all these years’ to realise their folly of continuing this support because in his opinion Musharraf has used their support for war on terror to only his aggrandise personal power.

“They must now ask him to roll back his unconstitutional and illegal actions,” he added.

He said Gen Musharraf had imposed the emergency rule and forced the judiciary to take a new oath on Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) because he feared a negative verdict from the courts on the petitions challenging his qualification to contest the presidential elections.

He disagreed with Gen Musharraf that the move against the judiciary had become necessary because it had started releasing terrorists and said that the four judges of the Supreme Court who had released the so-called terrorists were the ones who had taken oath on the PCO, making a mockery of Gen Musharraf’s reason for promulgating the emergency.

He further said all actions taken by Gen Musharraf since the imposition of emergency were illegal and unconstitutional because a seven-member bench of the Supreme Court had declared the order invalid.

He also criticised Gen Musharraf for taking off the air all local and foreign TV channels and issuing new draconian laws to suppress the freedom of the press.

He called upon the armed forces of Pakistan not to obey what he called the illegal orders of Gen Musharraf.He said Gen Musharraf was bent upon hanging on to power even if it meant destruction of the country, adding that even the attempt by Ms Bhutto to help him bring about a smooth transition through a power-sharing deal had backfired.

When asked how could the PML(N) trust Ms Bhutto again after what she had done to the ARD and Charter of Democracy in the immediate past, he said people learn from their mistakes and hoped Ms Bhutto would not commit the mistake again.