KARACHI, July 8: ARD chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan has said that despite acceptance of the government offer for dialogue, the opposition will not give up its plan to hold a protest rally on August 14.

The ARD chief was talking to journalists during a visit to the protest camp they had set up outside daily Jang offices on Tuesday.

“We have not given up our struggle against the government and our planned protest rally on August 14 is part of our mobilization programme,” Nawabzada Nasrullah elaborated.

He said the opposition had accepted the government offer for talks on contentious issues because “we consider such interaction to be part of the democratic process”.

He contended that the government, too, considered the LFO a contentious issue that is why it had offered to resume talks. He did not say anything when asked whether the government offer was aimed at securing parliament’s smooth approval for sending troops to Iraq.

In reply to a question, he said the opposition was neither a private army not was it waging a guerilla warfare; it had launched a struggle for the restoration of democracy and supremacy of the Constitution.

The ARD chief complained that the regime was not allowing the opposition parties to maintain contacts with people and mobilize them against the government.

In reply to another question, he confidently said that 2004 would be the year of elections. He did not elaborate whether he was talking of general elections or the local bodies elections.