PESHAWAR, May 7: Pakistan People’s Party has vowed to launch a countrywide campaign to collect facts about the “rigged referendum” which would be incorporated in the white paper to be published by the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy soon.

Speaking at a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday, PPP’s Provincial Deputy Secretary Syed Ayub Shah and Information Secretary Khwaja Yawar Naseer termed the referendum a one-sided exercise whereby the rulers had tried to hoodwink the nation.

They pointed out that the government had used Nazims and councillors as a political tool in the referendum. On the other hand, they said, the councillors and Nazims had been pressured to sever affiliations with their parties.

They regretted that the corrupt people, nabbed by the National Accountability Bureau, were being set free to run the “political show” under the umbrella of a pro-government alliance.

The PPP leaders criticized the arrest of Dr Zulfiqar Ali, spokesman for the Hizbut Tahrir, for distributing anti-referendum leaflets in Hayatabad. Dr Ali was being grilled by various secret agencies without any FIR registered against him, they claimed.