LAHORE, April 17: Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan advised President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday to direct the relevant agencies not to create problems for the people wanting to participate in the April 27 opposition rally.

This, he said, would allow the general a realistic assessment of public opinion.

Earlier, he expressed satisfaction with the president’s decision to allow the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy to hold its public meeting on the Minar-i-Pakistan lawns.

Speaking at a news conference at his residence, he said the political parties in the ARD and the All Parties Conference, the religious parties in the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal all the bar associations had already rejected the referendum as an extra-constitutional step. A referendum, he said, was not the right way of electing a head of state.

Drawing a distinction between a referendum and election, he said while there could be several contestants in an election, the referendum was a one-man race. Also, he said, while expenditure for the presidential election was borne by the candidates or the parties supporting them, Gen Musharraf was draining the state resources to carry out his campaign.

Asked what expectations could be attached to the Supreme Court whose judges had taken oath under the PCO, the ARD chief said he still hoped that the apex court would do something in the interest of its own dignity. The SC is scheduled to take up on April 22 the petitions moved against the referendum order.

In response to a question, the Nawabzada said all parties, be they in the ARD, APC or the MMA, were working for the same objective: the restoration of democracy. About the possibility of their uniting on a single platform, he said such developments were always shaped by circumstances.

He was all praise for Balochistan High Court’s Justice Tariq Mahmood who had first resigned as a member of the Election Commission on the ground that it was not for the commission to make arrangements for a referendum, and then as an HC judge when pressed to issue a disclaimer.