LAHORE, April 11: Governor Khalid Maqbool said here on Thursday that the president wanted to retain the Water Apportion-ment Accord, 1991, leaving its revision, if any, on the next elected provincial governments.

He was replying to questions by reporters during a visit to the de’Montmorency College of Dentistry. He said he had not read the latest IRSA decision on the distribution of water among the provinces and, therefore, could not comment on it.

Through written instructions, he added, the president had directed the authorities concerned to keep the accord in tact as he wanted to protect the rights of all the provinces.

Replying to a question regarding the political activities by the opposition parties, he said they were allowed to organize public meetings and rallies “within the limits of prescribed law.”

They government had earlier allowed them to hold meetings at Nasser Bagh or Minar-i-Pakistan and would again consider a request for such a meeting in future, he said.

The governor said people were fully supporting campaign for the presidential referendum, indicating that they would vote for the president.

He said among hundreds of thousands of people, only 5,000 to 6,000 government employees would have attended President Musharraf’s meeting at Minar-i-Pakistan. And it was, therefore, wrong to claim that it was show of government employees.