LAHORE, April 12: Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, the Pakistan Muslim League acting president, said on Friday a vote in favour of President Gen Pervez Musharraf in the referendum would be tantamount to voting for dictatorship.

Talking to newsmen outside the accountability court where he had been brought for the hearing of a reference against him, Mr Hashmi called upon the people to stay away from the polling stations. He also asked them to attend the public meeting convened by the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy at the Minar-i-Pakistan on April 27.

He said the president had violated the ‘sanctity’ of Minar-i-Pakistan by holding a public meeting, the audience for which was gathered forcibly. He said he had learnt that sanitary workers from Multan, Bahawalpur and Muzaffargarh had been brought to attend the public meeting under duress. Government employees in other provinces, too, had also been forced to attend the meetings being addressed by the president.

He claimed that the president was critical of former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto for personal reasons. The referendum, he said, would be no different than the one held by the late Gen Ziaul Haq. He said Data Ganj Baksh Town Nazim Khwaja Ahmad Hassaan had been issued a show cause notice for attending the public meeting addressed by President Musharraf. He said the union council Nazims who attended the meeting would also be proceeded against.

The accountability court adjourned the hearing of the reference against Mr Hashmi till April 20 after he submitted a copy of his application filed before the Lahore High Court for transfer of the hearing of the reference to another court.