February 12, 2008	Tuesday	Safar 04 ,1429

ISLAMABAD, Feb 11: Jamaat-i-Islami Chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed said on Monday that the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) would step up its efforts to persuade voters not to cast votes in what he termed ‘sham elections’ of Feb 18.

Talking to newsmen after a meeting with diplomats, he said the alliance would hold a rally in Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh despite a government ban. He said its recent rally in Karachi had also been held in defiance of a ban.

The Rawalpindi administration has refused to grant the APDM permission to hold the meeting in Liaquat Bagh on the grounds that the alliance was working against the electoral process.

The MMA president was non-committal when asked about the APDM convener Mehmood Khan Achakzai’s statement that a civil disobedience campaign could be launched after the elections. “This option could be considered by the leadership at an appropriate time.”

He got irritated when it was pointed out that the people who normally voted for his party might cast their vote. “Anyone who will cast vote despite the party’s ban will be a hypocrite.”

Answering a question, he said if other political parties could take part in the polls why couldn’t the APDM work to persuade people not to take part in them. He said: “We have kept our activities peaceful so far and we intend to continue with our campaign peacefully.”

He said: “No polls could ever be just, free, fair and transparent unless Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and 63 other superior courts judges are restored to their Nov 2 position, an interim government of national consensus is put in place and an independent Election Commission replaces the present biased set-up.”

When asked to comment on statements by PML-N leaders Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif that they had exposed pre-election irregularities, the JI chief said: “Don’t ask me questions which can pit opposition parties against each other.”

He also refused to answer a question about what type of relations he was expected to maintain with Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) Secretary-General Maulana Fazlur Rahman who was contesting the elections. “Let Feb 19 come and everything will come to the fore.”

About the APDM’s interaction with foreign diplomats, he said: “They asked us our opinion about boycotting the polls and we have explained our stance.”

The ambassadors and senior diplomats of the United States, Canada, Germany, Libya, the European Union, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia and Egypt attended the meeting which was addressed by APDM convener Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Senator Prof Khurshid Ahmed, Dr Abdul Hayee Baloch and others.

Explaining their point of view, the APDM leaders said they had come to the conclusion that there was no use contesting the elections which had been engineered for the success of a particular party.

They explained to foreign diplomats the conditions in which they would have taken part in the electoral process and said that not a single demand of the movement had been accepted by the Musharraf regime.

A declaration handed over to the diplomats said: “The political parties, represented by the APDM and the organisations representing the bar, media and civil society, have declared that the order of the COAS dated November 3, 2007, declaring emergency by holding the Constitution in abeyance, imposing (the) Provisional Constitution Order and all subsequent actions taken under the said order, including the so-called revocation of proclamation of emergency order, were unconstitutional, illegitimate, immoral and unacceptable.”

It further declared that Gen (retd) Musharraf had subverted the Constitution and assumed the office of the president unconstitutionally in late November and should quit immediately.