LAHORE, May 8: Cautioned by the `watchful eye’ of the media which captured the participation of government employees in the May 5 rally of the ruling PML and its two earlier lawyers’ conventions, Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi reportedly asked the district governments on Tuesday to prepare themselves for the president’s rally on May 12 without giving a reflection of the official involvement.

The ruling party plans to take half a million people to Islamabad on May 12 to hold the rally in support of its godfather, President Pervez Musharraf, being assailed by all opposition parties since March 9, the day he sent a reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Official sources said he gave the direction to the district nazims, the DCOs and the DPOs in all the districts except those in south Punjab, who were called here to attend a meeting having the only agenda of making the president’s rally in Islamabad a success.

“Make sure no government employee participates in the rally because the media these days is watchful,” he was quoted as having told the DCOs at the meeting with a direction to them to give the gathering a ‘realistic’ look.

The media had caught low-grade Lahore district government employees and trucks in the PML rally taken in the city on the occasion of chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s reception here on May 5.

It had also captured some government employees wearing black jackets in the two lawyers’ conventions earlier held in the city to establish that the community was with the government.

Sources said the chief minister had asked the nazims, the DCOs and the DPOs to fully mobilise people to participate in the rally. “A majority of the people supports the PML and gather them for the rally,” was another direction.

The city and district administrations have been impounding public transport through the police for transporting people to its rallies without caring for public outcry or media reports.

But, sources said, the chief minister also shunned this age-old practice and asked the DCOs and the DPOs to merely “negotiate with and facilitate” the transporters for ‘hiring’ their buses or wagons for the rally.

“He also did not want to give the impression that the government was going to forcibly use the public transport for its political procession. But negotiations with transporters by top district officers and an ordinary citizen is different. It is clear that the transporters will think a hundred times before rejecting an official offer,” sources said.

They claimed that the funds for sending supporters to the rally and for its arrangements too would be provided by the PML. “No, the district governments have not been asked to foot the bill probably to avoid the blame of using official funds for a political rally,” sources said when asked who would meet the expenses of the show.

Although it will be the second rally in the federal capital in a few weeks, party leaders say it will be the first one “reflective of the ruling party’s following at the grassroots level.”

President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Chaudhry Shujaat Husain, chief ministers Pervez Elahi, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Jam Muhammad Yousaf, NWFP PML President Amir Muqam will be the major speakers.

According to one leader, the PML leadership also wants to refute the opposition’s propaganda that the ruling party has no support among the masses or that it is like a house of cards unable to weather the current political storm.

In order to devise a strategy for the future, the party’s central working committee will be meeting in Quetta on May 20.

Party sources say that the CWC will discuss the situation at length and chart a line of action to take on the opposition through political means.

A meeting of the Lahore PML held under the chairmanship of Mian Munir on Tuesday decided to take between 200 and 250 workers from each of the 150 union councils of the metropolis.

Mian Munir told the participants that special arrangements have been made to ensure that all UCs meet the targets.

Some leaders also donated funds at the meeting.

Female office-bearers from all divisions except Rawalpindi have been exempted from participation in the rally. However, female MPAs will be duty-bound to reach the federal capital.

Punjab President of the party’s women wing, Shahana Farooqi, left here for Rawalpindi on Tuesday to make arrangements for the rally.

An official handout issued on Tuesday quoted the chief minister as saying the ruling PML would itself meet the expenses of the rally on a self-help basis. The PML leaders, office-bearers and workers from every nook and corner would attend the rally in great numbers to listen to their central leadership.

He said the rally on May 12 would prove to be the biggest gathering in the country’s history in which the entire nation would express solidarity with President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

The chief minister said the participants would “support the president’s national policies and difficult decisions he took in the national interest.” The PML would not need any other political party or its allies to establish its mass popularity and majority in the country.

The PML believed in the constitution’s supremacy, judiciary’s respect and rule of law whereas the opposition parties were using the CJP for advancing their political agenda. “We do not need any support for declaring our political might,” he asserted.