LAHORE, Feb 22: MMA president Qazi Husain Ahmad vowed on Wednesday that the Feb 26 rally in the city would be taken out at all costs, as no-one could stop them from doing so.

He also pledged to protest against US president Bush’s arrival on March 3 as an undesirable act.

“People will come out from each and every house for assembling at the Nasser Bagh and then proceeding to the Masjid-i-Shuhada on The Mall braving all consequences,” he told a press conference in which he declared that the route of the rally would not be changed.

The maximum the government could do was to arrest the people while the masses would divest the rulers of this authority too within days, he warned.

He told the Punjab government that what happened in Islamabad on Feb 19 did no good to the country’s image, as a curfew-like situation in the federal capital gave the message that people did not enjoy democratic rights here.

Holding trained agents of intelligence agencies responsible for violence during anti-cartoon protests, Qazi Husain said the opposition parties were ready to face penalty if their activists were found guilty of rioting.

The MMA chief said the current movement would be taken to its logical end of dislodging the rulers standing for the western culture. The Islamabad episode had made it clear that the rulers were standing with the offenders against the devotees of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him).

“How could we invite the government to join us in the protest when they were standing with our enemy,” he told a questioner.

Answering a query, he said they wanted to break the myth that he who enjoyed support of the army and America could come to power in Pakistan. “Such a myth has recently been broken by Hamas in Palestine, he said.

“We wish to rid the nation of the army generals. We shall not accept any other general after Gen Musharraf’s ouster by the movement.”

He urged the UNO to frame a new international legislation for banning humiliation of anyone’s faith.

On suspicion about his house arrest on Feb 19, he said had he struck any deal with the government he would have withdrawn his protest call and changed the route of the rally.

The MMA president appealed that minorities and their worship places should not be damaged as it was the obligation of the Muslims to protect them. Giving a call for boycotting imported goods, he urged the local industrialists to manufacture all the merchandise being imported so far.