HARIPUR, Nov 15: The women wing of the Pakistan People’s Party took out a procession here on Wednesday to protest against the adoption of the Hasba bill and the Bajaur incident.

The PPP activists marched from the Basti Hakim Rasheed to the Panian Chowk chanting slogans against the government.

The provincial president of the PPP, Mehrun Nisa Afridi, termed the bill an anti-women legislation. She said that religious parties were bent upon introducing a Talibanisation-style rule in the province, which was unacceptable.

The government, she said, had failed at all fronts, which was evident from escalation of prices of essential household items, deteriorating law and order situation and the killing of innocent people in incidents like the attack on a seminary in Bajaur Agency.

She urged the party workers to prepare for general elections ahead of schedule and said that the end of the military rule was ‘very near’.

Other leaders, including Gulnaz Rasheed, Dr Faiza Rasheed and Asmat Kareem, also condemned the Hasba Bill and described it as a tool for exploiting women in the province.

They accused the federal government of killing innocent people in Bajaur and Dargai on US instigation. Other speakers urged General Pervez Musharraf to step down from the post of the president.

SUICIDE: A jobless man committed suicide in the jurisdiction of Saddar police station here on Wednesday.