PESHAWAR, Oct 12: Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) activists held a protest demonstration on Thursday to mark the seventh anniversary of the overthrow of Nawaz Sharif government by Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Talking to journalists after the demonstration on Sher Shah Suri Road, the NWFP chief of PML-N, Pir Sabir Shah, condemned the overthrow of an elected government by a general and said that October 12 was the darkest day in Pakistan’s political history.

He said that Pakistan had suffered irreparable losses during the rule of generals including the debacle of East Pakistan and Siachin. Again, he added, Gen Musharraf had put the country’s sovereignty and integrity in danger.

He alleged that Gen Musharraf had taken U-turn on the 60-year-old policy on Kashmir and declared Kashmiri Mujahideen as terrorists.

He said that due to the overthrow of a pro-Pakistan government in Kabul, western boarders of Pakistan had again become insecure and Gen Musharraf had helped the US to instal there an anti-Pakistan government with pro-India leanings.

Mr Shah said that Gen Musharraf had launched a meaningless war in the tribal area against his own people to appease the US. In Balochistan, he had launched a military drive to complete the US agenda and situation there had worsened with the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti, he added.

He said the killing of Akbar Bugti was part of a US conspiracy to dismember the country.

Commenting on President Musharraf’s memoir, the PML leader alleged that the president had revealed official secrets for personal gains.

“In the book, Gen Musharraf has used derogatory remarks about Dr Abdul Qadeer, who is the national hero for having made Pakistan a nuclear power,” he said and added that instead of rewarding the national hero, Gen Musharraf had kept him under house arrest for several years at the behest of the US.

In this situation, Mr Shah said, all political forces, except those supporting President Musharraf, should unite on a single platform to save the country and ‘rid it of military dictators.’

“We would have to set aside petty interests and join hands for solidarity of the country, he said.

Once the political forces were united, no one would be able to stop former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif from coming back to the country, he said.

Answering a question about a suspected deal between the People’s Party Parliamentarians and President Musharraf, Mr Shah said that such reports were mere speculations.

“The PML and PPP have recently signed the charter of democracy. Now if any of the two parties withdraws from its stand, it will be a political death for it,” he said.—PPI