LAHORE, May 21: Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Qasim Zia announced here on Saturday that he would file in the assembly a reference against former PPP MPA Khalid Wattoo from Faisalabad, who had recently joined the ruling PML. Speaking at a news conference in the assembly chambers, he said the decision was taken at a PPP parliamentary party meeting held earlier.

Another decision was to join the rights activists’ mini-marathon to express solidarity with them and to establish that the PPP believed in rights of people. He said he would file the reference on Monday (tomorrow).

“Let’s see how the speaker rejects the reference. I am recognized as the leader of the opposition,” he averred.

Mr Zia condemned what, he said, the suspension of the PPP’s Kharian Tehsil Nazim Nadeem Asghar Kaira by the government and handing over his powers to the naib nazim.

He said the government had also registered a fake case against a Lahore PPP union council nazim, Zahid Shah, on Friday. This was being done by the government under a planning to intimidate the PPP leadership.

“But we would not be harassed by such attempts and contest the forthcoming local-government election on every seat,” he said.

He said the government had become unnerved. It was stopping mini-marathons by human rights activists and violating human rights. There was no ban on the chief minister to hold public meetings even in Lahore, but the same right was being denied to others. “He must resign if he has lost nerves,” he said.

He condemned the misbehaviour by police with women participants in an earlier mini-marathon attempted to be held by the rights activists here last week.

Mr Zia said the parliamentary party had also decided to meet again on June 3 to consider reports by its 23 spokespersons deputed last year to keep an eye on the working of different departments and their ministers, and their spending of the budget during the current fiscal year.

The reports would be made public through the press, allowing the people to know what the government had been doing during this time.

He said he was not aware of any direction by the Swiss court to Ms Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari to appear before it. They were facing fake charges for the past eight years and nothing had been proved against them so far, he said.Mr Zia said the government must constitute an independent election commission to allow the people to vote for the PPP.