ISLAMABAD, Dec 18: The All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) on Tuesday described the Jan 8 elections as a sham exercise aimed at perpetuating the rule of President Pervez Musharraf, and appealed to the people to boycott them en mass.

Leaders of 20 parties in the alliance made this appeal in a declaration issued after a convention held here to work out a plan against the election.

The leaders pledged to step up their boycott campaign and said that the issue had polarised the nation, with one group supporting the dictatorship and the other struggling for democracy.

The convention, presided over by Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai, was attended by, among others, Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Tehrik-i-Insaaf chief Imran Khan.

The convention declared the elections ‘unconstitutional and illegitimate’ and described the imposition of emergency and all steps taken after it by President Pervez Musharraf as ‘immoral and unacceptable’.

An APDM source told Dawn that Qazi Hussain Ahmed, in his speech, said the countrywide campaign would eliminate the agents of darkness and bring to the fore people who respected the Constitution and who would run the country in accordance with dictates of the Constitution.

Imran Khan in his speech accused Benazir Bhutto and Maulana Fazlur Rahman of helping Gen Musharraf in his ‘illegal and unconstitutional actions’.

He criticised the Election Commission and said that free and fair elections could not be held in the presence of a judiciary which had taken the oath under the PCO.

The alliance said: “We declare that Gen (retd) Musharraf has subverted the Constitution and has assumed the office of the president on Nov 28, 2007, unconstitutionally and is holding power as usurper and should quit it immediately.”

The declaration said that genuine elections could be held only after the Constitution had been restored to the position of Oct 12, 1999, and the superior judiciary restored to the position of Nov 2, 2007.

The APDM demanded undoing of all ‘unconstitutional steps’ taken by Gen Musharraf against the judiciary on Nov 3, 2007, restoration of superior judiciary as it existed on Nov 2, 2007,and reinstatement of all judges who did not take oath on Nov 3, 2007, under the PCO.

The declaration also called for an end to military operation against the people in Balochistan, Fata, Swat and other areas in the country.

It also demanded formation of an independent Election Commission.