PESHAWAR, Feb 12: The All Parties’ Democratic Movement has appealed to the people to boycott the Feb 18 “sham elections” being held under the one-man rule of Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf.

Addressing a public meeting in Shahibagh on Tuesday, Mahmood Khan Achakzai of the APDM said the APDM was not against the election as such; they were opposed to the manner elections were being held. He said that unless an independent election commission was constituted, all eligible voters were allowed to get themselves registered and political parties were provided with level-playing field, the elections would be an exercise in futility. He said it was the duty of democratic forces to boycott the elections and struggle for restoration of democracy.

Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed said free and transparent elections were impossible under the present set-up. He said the military dictators had changed the spirit of the 1973 Constitution made a new document, protecting the unlawful measures of martial law. He said Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and other judges were detained in their homes, while those who had abrogated the Constitution were roaming scot-free.

He said Justice Chaudhry was punished for hearing cases of missing persons. He said hundreds of innocent people were kept in ‘secret dungeons’ manned by secret agencies.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf chief Imran Khan said elements responsible for killing people in Balochistan, Waziristan and other parts of the country must be punished. He said the APDM was fighting for the rights of the people and it was the duty of all democratic forces to back the demands of the APDM.

Mr Khan accused the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement and its chief Altaf Hussain of unleashing terror in Sindh, particularly in Karachi against anti-Musharraf forces.

Sindh Tarqqi Pasand Party chairman Dr Qadir Magsi, National Party president Dr Abdul Hayee, Khaksar Tehreek president Hameeduddin Al-Masharqi also addressed the meeting and blamed Pervez Musharraf and his associates for the political crisis and social strife in the country.

The meeting adopted a number of resolutions, demanding scrapping of the Provisional Constitution Order, resignation of Pervez Musharraf, reinstatement of deposed judges and formation of an independent election commission and a neutral caretaker government to hold free and transparent elections in the country.