March 27, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 18, 1429

LAHORE, March 26: PML-N legislators from the Punjab have threatened to take to the streets if the Punjab Assembly session is not convened by April 2.

Scores of MPAs-elect, led by party’s provincial president Sirdar Zulfikar Khosa, told a press conference here on Wednesday that they would protest against the authorities outside the Governor's House and the Punjab Assembly building if the session was not requisitioned by April 2.

Secretary-General Raja Ashfaq Sarwar and Information Secretary Khwaja Ahmed Hassaan were also present.

They regretted that the session had not been requisitioned despite a passage of 40 days against the routine practice of about a fortnight.

They said neither a notification had been issued to requisition the session nor the MPAs-elect had been officially informed about it.

Mr Khosa criticised President Musharraf for what he said deliberately delaying the session as all other provincial legislatures were meeting on earlier dates.

Media reports suggest that the PA session is being convened on April 9.

The PML-N leader said President Musharraf and Governor Khalid Maqbool wanted to save the diminishing PML-Q, which could not yet decide its opposition leader in the house.

He said no written invitation to attend the session had been sent to the MPAs-elect who had learnt only through the media about the convening of the legislature.

He wondered that the legislature of the largest province was going to meet after sessions of all other houses and termed it nothing but a sheer 'discrimination' on the part of the president.

Mr Khosa said that the two major parties had secured the public mandate but alleged that President Musharraf was now disregarding it by indulging in intrigues against it instead of playing a neutral role.

He demanded that the PA session should be convened on April 2 otherwise the party’s MNAs and MPAs would adopt the protest mode against President Musharraf and his administration.

About encouraging defections in the PML-Q, Mr Khosa said his party had nothing to do with this and recalled that it was the PML-N that had introduced a law against the floor crossing.Asked if the PPP MPs-elect would join them in the protest, he said being the coalition partner PPP members would certainly side with them.

Regarding Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani's statement of declaring the president a part of parliament, he said Mr Gillani was right to say that but his words must not construe as declaring President Musharraf a part of parliament.

Mr Khosa, however, would not divulge the name of party's stop-gap chief minister.

The PML-N had nominated its president Mian Shahbaz Sharif as the candidate for the office. But he could not take part in the Feb 18 polls as his candidature was rejected by the returning officer on certain cases against him.

Mr Sharif did not challenge the rejection in the appellate tribunal headed by the judges who had taken oath under the PCO.

He plans to contest in by-polls after restoration of the deposed judges as the party has made reinstatement of judges as its top priority.