PESHAWAR, Dec 22: The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) will celebrate the 98th anniversary of the party here on Dec 30. Speaking at a news briefing after a PML-N meeting here on Wednesday , party's provincial organizer Pir Sabir Shah said the top party leadership would participate in the celebration.

"Nawaz Sharif has chosen the NWFP for celebrating the founding anniversary of the party, which shows his confidence in the workers of this province," he told reporters. Mr Shah said the party would also hold a protest meeting on Dec 30, on the Charsadda Road, wherein the central leaders would address the party workers.

On the occasion, party's secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said the NWFP chapter of the PML-N was the first in the country that protested the illegal removal of the elected Nawaz government on Oct 12, 1998.

"Begum Kulsoom Nawaz had also launched an anti-Musharraf campaign from the Frontier province. It's a clear testimony of the confidence in the party's workers of this part of the country," he said.

The NWFP-based party workers had proved their loyalty to the party leadership on several occasions, he said. The PML's workers from the NWFP had also started heading towards Lahore to receive Mian Shahbaz Sharif and in the process, many of them were sent to jails and beaten up.

The former chief minister said party central leaders, including Raja Zafarul Haq, Chaudry Nisar Ali Khan, Ahsan Iqbal, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Maimmona Hashmi and others would address the party workers.

He said the PML's workers could not be intimidated by illegal means adopted by the government and said they would continue their struggle for restoration of democracy in the country. Sabir Shah said the PML was the party that created Pakistan and was committed to defend the ideological frontiers of the country.