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LAHORE, Feb 5: All bazaars and markets remained closed in the city on Thursday as an expression of solidarity with the Kashmiris.
Various political parties and social organizations organized rallies and seminars to highlight the issue and The Mall was the centre of these activities.
There was very thin traffic on roads and all government and non-government departments and offices and educational institutions were closed as the government had already announced a public holiday on Feb 5.
MMA: Activists of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal marched from Nasir Bagh to the Charing Cross on The Mall where they held a rally.
Speaking to the participants, Senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmad said Gen Pervez Musharraf was the first army general who had deviated from the consensus national stance on Kashmir by saying that there existed more than one solutions to the issue.
The senator termed it betrayal to the blood of innocent Kashmiris who had laid their lives for achieving their right to self-determination.
He reminded Gen Musharraf that the Agra talks had failed only because he (Gen Musharraf) had refused to accept a mention of cross-border terrorism in the joint declaration. But, he regretted, the same ruler had accepted it at the Saarc conference without uttering a word about atrocities of the 700,000-strong Indian army in the Held Kashmir.
He said nothing was safe in the hands of Gen Musharraf, whose "irresponsible" policy had bifurcated the All Parties Hurriat Conference.
MMA information secretary Pir Ijaz Hashmi said the Oct 1999 plane-hijacking was a ploy to install a US agent at the helm for the accomplishment of Washington's agenda.
He warned PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Husain against providing a cover to Gen Musharraf on nuclear scientists' issue and asked him to keep in mind the fate of Nawaz Sharif who had done so on the Kargil issue and was facing the consequences.
He urged the ARD and the ruling coalition to come out on roads with the MMA to save the ideological frontiers of the country.
Terming Gen Musharraf a US protege, he wondered why army chiefs from Gen Aslam Beg to Gen Musharraf were not being debriefed on the proliferation issue.
Lahore chief of the alliance Mian Maqsood regretted that Gen Musharraf's nuclear policy had made the country unreliable among the comity of nations and no country would ever be willing to work with us.
PML-N: Carrying banners inscribed with anti-Musharraf slogans, PML-N activists marched from Nila Gumbad to the Charing Cross where they held a rally, which was addressed by Tehmina Daultana, Zafar Iqbal Jhagra, Khwaja Saad Rafiq, Malik Pervez and Haji Hanif.
They said Pakistan had been lending active support to Kashmiris in their struggle for self-determination but during the era of violators of the Constitution the policy had been changed.
They said Gen Musharraf had humiliated the prime minister who had detonated nuclear bombs for Pakistan and was now humiliating the "benefactor of Pakistan" who had given nuclear technology to the country.
They warned the army ruler that Dr Qadeer's confessional statement would be used by the world as an FIR against country's nuclear programme.
They vowed to avenge nuclear scientists' humiliation and division of the APHC.
JAMAATU DAAWA: The Jamaat held a rally at the Regal Chowk which was addressed by its Amir Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Abdur Rahman Makki, Maulana Amir Hamza, Occupied Kashmir Muslim League representative Ishtiaq Ahmad and others.
Hafiz Saeed said his party would not allow the government to waste sacrifices of Kashmiris on the negotiation table.
