ISLAMABAD, May 20: Acting parliamentary leader of the opposition Muslim League-Nawaz in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has urged judiciary to play its due role to save the country’s institutions from collapse. He stressed the need for judicial activism.

Speaking at a news conference here on Friday, Mr Nisar said, “the nation had been waiting to witness “judicial activism” for the past several years”.

Criticizing the economic policies of the government, the PML-N leader said the poverty has increased. “About 50 per cent of the population is living below poverty line Gen Musharraf is claiming that the country has 10 million mobile phone users”.

Mr Nisar said the rulers had crossed all the limits and the time had come to launch a decisive movement against the government.

He claimed that misunderstandings between the opposition parties were being iron out and soon all the opposition groups would be united on one-point agenda of restoration of the parliament’s sovereignty and democracy.

Replying to a question, Mr Nisar agreed that at present no party was in a position to bring masses to the streets. “The PML-N, the PPP and the MMA could only bring workers on roads, but it will not serve any purpose”, he maintained.

However, he said the people would be mobilized against the rulers when after uniting the opposition parties on one platform.

The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader claimed that his party had been acting as a bridge between the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy and the MMA and it was due to its efforts that the leaders of the two alliances had held meetings in the past.

Responding to a question regarding the ruling of the speaker that army could not be criticized by the parliamentarians, Chaudhry Nisar said they were not against the army as an institution. However, they would

As far as Gen Musharraf would continue doing politics, he said, they would continue to criticize him and his generals. “If you want to become a chef, then you must be ready to bear the heat of the kitchen”, he said.

He said Gen Musharraf was playing with mud and cried when he got his hands dirty.

In response to a question, Mr Nisar said neither the PML-N nor the PPP would change their leaders on the request of any outside force. He said so far he had not received any request from any diplomatic circle or country to change the party leadership.

Mr Nisar also lashed out at the government for making issues out of non-issues only to divert the attention of the people from the real problems.

He also criticized the government’s double standards on various issues and said “when the MMA was opposing joint marathons of men and women, the government was insisting on arranging such events, and now when the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) announced to hold such marathons, the government is opposing it”.

The PML-N leader also flayed the regime for not making efforts to bring Pakistani prisoners from Guantanamo Bay. He claimed that still some 100 Pakistanis were in the custody of the US troops in Guantanamo Bay. He said those 30 Pakistanis, who recently arrived from Guantanamo Bay, had been put in Adiyala Jail.