LAHORE, March 6: Amid a complete strike in the Punjab capital, Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif made it clear on Friday that he would pursue politics of confrontation and the street would now decide matters.

“We’ve seen elections and the matter will now be settled on the street,” he told a rally, one of the biggest-ever in Lahore.

Late arrival of the central leadership disappointed many activists as they were kept waiting in the sun for hours. Many left without hearing the Sharifs.

Strict security measures were made for the rally. The Mall had been declared a no-go area for motorists since noon, while pedestrians were either frisked or made to walk through security gates.

Around 3,500 policemen were posted along the route while personal guards of the Sharifs manned the bullet-proof stage.

Urging the audience to join the long march and the sit-in in Islamabad with equal enthusiasm, Nawaz said their sacrifice of a few days could change the country’s destiny.

Mr Sharif said the march on Islamabad would determine the shape of things to come.

Accusing President Zardari of deception and backing out of promises, he said that, if voted to power, the PML-N would not reciprocate such acts.

Mr Sharif criticised the president’s remarks that the disqualification verdict, “albeit unfortunate, carried legal weight”. He wondered whether Mr Zardari would use the same words for the execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Recalling that Mr Bhutto had been sentenced to death on the strength of Ahmad Raza Kasuri’s FIR, he regretted that Mr Kasuri was now a counsel for President Zardari.

Nawaz Sharif lamented that people who were supposed to be democrats were now “hatching conspiracies against demo- cracy”.

He advised the president to consult his party before taking important decisions. Observers noted that Mr Sharif took care in his speech to differentiate between the “Zardari group” and the “real PPP”.

Earlier, Shahbaz Sharif also came down hard on President Zardari and the prime minister’s adviser on interior, Rehman Malik.

He said on one hand the PPP was talking of a dialogue and, on the other, it was “indulging in horse-trading”.

He alleged that Mr Malik had withdrawn Rs500 million from the exchequer for horse-trading in Punjab.

Lahore wore a deserted look for most of the day as all major associations of traders and shopkeepers — Qaumi Tajir Ithad, Anjuman-i-Tajran and the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry — had supported the PML-N’s appeal for strike.

A partial strike was observed in Dera Ghazi Khan, Sargodha, Bahawalpur and Muzaffargarh, while the response in Multan and Mianwali was emphatic.
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