PESHAWAR, July 5: The Lal Masjid operation is a drama being staged to divert public attention from the London multi-party conference, according to the Awami National Party.

Addressing a news conference at the press club here on Thursday, ANP’s parliamentary leader in the NWFP Assembly Bashir Ahmed Bilour said the Lal Masjid crisis had exposed the government-Mullah nexus against democracy, adding that the government had itself promoted extremism to depoliticise the country.

The Lal Masjid operation was a government’s bid to get the lawyers’ struggle and the London conference overshadowed but the media and people had thwarted the government’s move.

He said that the legal fraternity was successfully leading a popular movement for the early reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and the independence of the judiciary.

Some political weathercocks wanted to abstain from the MPC, and were trying to use the crisis to get it postponed, he said.

Former general secretary of the legal wing of the PML-Q Kamran Waheed announced that he was joining the ANP along with other likeminded friends and relatives.

Criticising the Lal Masjid administrators, he said they were using religious schools’ students, especially girls, as human shields.

Lashing out at the government, he asked why had the government not responded when seminary students stormed and occupied buildings six months ago.

He accused the government of having allowed the students to create a crisis resulting in public harassment. He said a majority of the seminary students were Pukhtoons, adding that Pukhtoons were being killed everywhere, including Waziristan, Bajaur and the Lal Masjid.

He said: “We advise the government to resolve Waziristan and the seminary issues in the NWFP through negotiations.”

He urged Gen Pervez Musharraf to quit his posts, establish a neutral set-up and hold free, fair and transparent elections, conducted by an independent election commission. He said this was the only solution to the present crises.