HYDERABAD, May 21: Central leaders of the PML-N have lashed out at the president and the prime minister for holding the people of Karachi hostages during their visits to the megapolis and said that all the main arteries of the city remain blocked during the visits of the president and the prime minister. Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Saturday, Sardar Rahim and Zain Ansari, who is also the provincial president of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), said that they were late at the press conference because the main roads in Karachi were blocked by police due to the visit of the prime minister.

They said curfew like condition existed in Karachi whenever the president and the prime minister visited the megapolis. “We condemn this in no uncertain terms,” the PML leaders said.

Sardar Raheem said that since Oct 12, 1999, the foreign policy of Pakistan was being framed by outsiders and the dictator was only following this policy in letter and in spirit. He said that our frontiers have become totally unsafe.

He said former prime minister and PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif had given a gift to the nation on May 28, 1998, in the shape of an atomic bomb. He said the entire Muslim world was proud of this achievement and the sentiments of the Muslims on the nuclear explosion had even echoed in Masjid-e-Aqsa.

He regretted that the hero of this explosion, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, has been placed in chains and shackles, which is an insult to 140 million people of Pakistan.

He alleged that the present rulers are a security risk and added that in order to protect Pakistan against any harm, a grand alliance of all the opposition parties was already on the cards. He said within a couple of days, a grand alliance will start its work from a united platform.

The provincial ARD president said the true leaders of the people Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto could resolve the Kashmir imbroglio.

Mr Ansari criticised the domestic policies of the rulers and said that price hike, unemployment and lawlessness have become the order of the day in the country and added that disappointment and resentment was writ large on the faces of the people.