QUETTA, Feb 6: Leaders of All Parties’ Democratic Movement have said participation in the Feb 18 polls would amount to betraying the people and urged the voters to boycott the elections in support of the APDM’s struggle.

A public meeting held at the hockey ground here on Wednesday, adopted 14 resolutions, one of which demanded resignation of President Pervez Musharraf and transfer of power from an “illegal military regime” to an interim government formed with the consensus of political parties.

Mahmood Khan Achakzai, who presided over the meeting, said the crisis would not end without an independent judicial system. He said the APDM was struggling for the genuine democracy, supremacy of parliament, rule of law, independent judiciary and equal rights for the people of all provinces.

He said that the nation wanted the Islamic revolution of Caliph Hazrat Umar when all people were treated equally.

Chief of Tehrik-i-Insaaf Imran Khan said that contesting the elections by the PPP was strengthening President Musharraf. He accused the PPP of trying to cash in on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

He criticised the political parties which were contesting the polls and said that it was the responsibility of all political forces to join hands against dictatorship, but some political groups were not interested in the restoration of genuine democracy.

He said innocent people were being killed in what he called a meaningless fighting in the tribal areas. He said that the APDM’s basic objective was to protect the people’s rights and liberate the nation from the yoke of the dictatorship.

Dr Hayee Baloch of the National Party said that genuine democratic and political forces would boycott the polls because taking part in the elections under the present autocratic rule would legitimatise all acts of the Musharraf government.

Habib Jalib Baloch, secretary general of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal), said that the rulers had launched military operations in the NWFP and Balochistan in which innocent Balochs and Pakhtuns were killed.

Sirajul Haq, the NWFP amir of Jamaat-i-Islami condemned what he called the extra-constitutional methods being used in Waziristan and Balochistan.

Dr Qadir Magsi, the chief of Sindh Progressive Party, said that for the past 60 years Sindhis, Balochs and Pakhtuns were being treated like slaves and a ‘fascist party’ had killed innocent democratic workers in Karachi on May 12 last year.

Nawabzada Talal Akbar Bugti, the chief of his own faction of Jamhoori Watan Party, said the large gathering proved that people supported the poll boycott campaign of the APDM.

One of the resolutions adopted at the meeting said that all actions taken by the Musharraf government under the Provisional Constitutional Order of Nov 3, including the sacking of judges, were unlawful and demanded the restoration of the pre-Nov 3 judiciary.

Another resolution demanded immediate end to the military operation in Balochistan, Swat and tribal areas and expulsion of all foreigners from there.

The meeting also demanded formation of an independent election commission for holding transparent polls for smooth transfer of power to the majority party in parliament.

It demanded release of Sardar Akhtar Mengal, deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, president of SCBA Atizaz Ahsan, Ali Ahmed Kurd, Justice (retd) Tariq Mahmood and thousands of others, besides the missing persons.

The meeting blamed wrong policies of the government for the shortage of flour, unemployment, lawlessness, price-hike and loadshedding.