RAWALPINDI, Oct 12: The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) observed October 12 as ‘black day’ and held a protest to mark the removal of its government about four years ago.

The PML workers set up a protest camp near Rawalpindi- Islamabad Press Club. A large number of PML-N local leaders and workers gathered at the site to register their protests. These included Siddiqul Farooq, Chaudhry Tanvir, Akhtar Mehmood, Sardar Naseem, MPA Malik Ibrar, Sardar Tariq, Haji Pervez and Anwar Abbasi.

They raised slogans ‘go Musharraf go’, ‘down with authoritarianism’, ‘government of might is right won’t succeed, army dictatorship won’t succeed’, ‘long live democracy’ and ‘LFO not acceptable’.

The protesters had tied black straps onto their arms and were holding the pictures of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif. They were also waving PML flags.

In the end, the leaders spoke at the protest camp. They lambasted the government for what they termed running at the whims of a military dictator. They called it sham democracy. They said democracy had been held hostage by the army generals.

A large number of women workers also participated in the protest. They included PML-N, Punjab women wing, president Najma Hameed, city president Tahira Aurangzeb, general secretary Seema Jilani.

The PML women workers pledged that they would continue their struggle against authoritarian rule and for the restoration of democracy.