LAHORE, Nov 9: The PPP (Shaheed Bhutto), the Labour Party and some civil society organizations have demanded that Islamabad should cancel the agreement it had signed with Sweden for the purchase of costly planes.

Speaking at a joint press conference here on Wednesday, PPP (SB) Information Secretary Farrukh Sohail Goindi and Labour Party’s provincial secretary-general Afzal Sarroya claimed that at a time when every single penny was needed for rehabilitation of the quake victims, the $1 billion deal had come as a shocking news for the nation.

The plane deal had been initially kept secret, but it had to be made public on Oct 18 when a Swedish paper gave out its details, they claimed.

Then the Swedish arms manufacturing company, Saab, had to clarify that talks had been going on for the last many years to finalize the agreement.

Questioning the logic behind purchasing these and F-16 planes when Islamabad was engaged in advancing peace process with its arch-rival New Delhi, they vowed to organize a campaign against the arms deal in Pakistan as well as in Sweden.

A delegation, under the banner of Citizen Relief Committee, would visit the Scandinavian state in early December to mobilize the masses against the agreement, they said.

They also demanded that the army should give up construction of a new expensive GHQ in Islamabad and save money for the rehabilitation programme.

“As the existing GHQ is serving all requirements of the armed forces, the new plan will cost the national exchequer dearly.”

Answering a question, Goindi said both Islamabad and New Delhi were not serious about the peace process initiated to facilitate globalization. “Had they been serious, they would have allowed their peoples to go freely into each other’s country.”

Claiming that Rs7 million relief goods had been transported to the quake-affected areas by the CRC, he said the body was planning to organize a donation collection drive at the mass level in the United States, Japan, Turkey, Lebanon, Cyprus and Dubai.

Several prominent personalities like former Punjab chief minister Haneef Ramay, seasoned politicians Rao Rasheed and S.M. Masood, Dr Anwar Sajjad, Shujaat Hashmi, besides some NGOs like the Labour Education Foundation and the Women Workers Helpline, are also members of the CRC. He said the organization would provide 400 shelter homes (100 in the first phase) in four villages of Balakot and Rawalakot.