QUETTA, Dec 24: The central leadership of the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) has appealed to the people to boycott elections on Jan 8, saying it was a ‘big fraud’ with the nation.

The appeal was made at the first anti-election public meeting held in Pishin, some 50 kilometres from here, on Monday.

Mr Mehmood Khan Achakzai, the Central Convener of the APDM, who presided over the meeting, condemned PML-N and PPP leaderships for taking part in what he termed farcical elections despite having promised to boycott them.

“People should stay at homes on Jan 8 and foil the fraud with the nation being committed by President Pervez Musharraf who is himself an illegal and unconstitutional president,” Mr Achakzai said. He paid tribute to over 60 sacked judges of superior courts who, he said, had been suffering for having refused to take oath under the PCO. He said fair and free elections were impossible under President Musharraf.

He said that the struggle of the APDM was for restoration of all sacked judges.

JI chief Qazi Hussian Ahmed condemned President Musharraf for what he called his pro-US policies. He said that these flawed policies had failed. He said the policies and unconstitutional and illegal acts of a military dictator had resulted in the dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971.

He said former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had given the country a constitution in which rights of the federation and its federating units had been determined and parliament had been declared a supreme institution.

He said the Constitution envisaged that the country would be run under a federal parliamentary system, but army generals repeatedly suspended the Constitution and ousted civilian governments. He also condemned military operations in tribal areas, Balochistan and Lal Masjid.

The meeting adopted a resolution calling for an immediate end to the on-going military operation in Balochistan, resignation of President Musharraf and restoration of all deposed judges of superior courts.