LAHORE, June 30: ARD President Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan proposed on Monday that a decisive battle should be launched to ‘liberate’ the country from the army rule and establish for good that governance was the elected representatives’ prerogative.

Speaking at a seminar, the senior leader said President Bush had violated the parliamentary traditions by extending the US visit invitation to Gen Musharraf rather than the prime minister. He said Indian deputy prime minister also regarded Gen Musharraf as the source of all powers and declared that New Delhi would prefer to hold talks with him, not Mr Jamali, the premier.

The seminar was organized by Lahore PPP vice-president Malik Ehsan Ganjial to pay tributes to Mr Asif Ali Zardari, who has been behind the bars for the past seven years, although he has not been convicted in any of the over a dozen cases against him.

Most of the audience were wearing black arm bands as a mark of protest.

The ARD president said Mr Zaradri was not the only prisoner in the country. In fact, he said, all 150 million people had been held prisoner by the military rulers. He said all opposition parties, lawyers’ organizations and human rights bodies had refused to extend recognition to Gen Musharraf as president after which he was left with no right to stay in power.

He said Gen Musharraf’s indication that he would part with his military uniform after three years was not credible as his predecessor Gen Ziaul Haq had stretched his three months to eleven years.

About the $3 billion assistance Pakistan has been pledged by the US, the ARD president alleged that the general had bartered the sovereignty of the country.

He said the country faced several challenges at present and to thwart them genuine leaders of political parties should be allowed to return home.

PPP Vice-Chairman Syed Yousaf Reza Gilani said the government had not been able to cause a dent to the PPP’s popularity even by keeping the party leadership under detention or out of the country.

He said the situation had deteriorated to an extent that the people were not willing to accept the apex court’s verdict in favour of Gen Musharraf or the NA speaker’s ruling in support of the LFO.

Gilani, a former NA speaker, was of the view that all proceedings of the parliament lacked legitimacy as they were supposed to begin with a joint session of the two houses, which was yet to be held. Senator Lateef Khosa said Mr Zardari had been offered freedom provided he extended support to the LFO. But, he said, he had rejected the deal and refused to bow to all pressures.

Zardari, he said, was in high spirits and was proud that he was being tried in the prison where his father-in-law, the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had been kept.

PPP Secretary-General Jehangir Badr said the government was bent upon wiping out the PPP but would fail in its designs.

Deputy Secretary-General Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Mr Zardari had told the party leaders in plain terms that they should not strike any deal for his release.

He was critical of the leaders who had joined the rival Patriots faction for personal gains. He said the party had decided to send references against them to the NA speaker and the Chief Election Commissioner. Senator Sajjad Bukhari, Khalid Ghurki, Faiza Malik, Sajida Mir, Qayyum Nizami, Dr Fakhruddin, Syed Munir Husain Gilani and Hanif Tahir were other speakers. Manzoor Ali Gilani, Munir Ahmed Khan and Haji Azizur Rehman were prominent among the audience.