LAHORE, Sept 1: PPP’s Punjab President Qasim Zia threatened on Sunday to launch a country-wide protest if the government did not allow Benazir Bhutto to contest the general elections.

He was talking to newsmen at a hunger strike camp set up at Faisal Square to protest over the rejection of Ms Bhutto’s nomination papers.

A large number of PPP workers had gathered at the camp. They also held a rally on The Mall. ARD chief Nawabzada Nasrullah also spoke to the participants in the meeting.

They were chanting slogans against the government for debarring their chairperson from taking part in October elections.

Qasim Zia said the government’s efforts to sideline the PPP’s main leadership would not succeed. Attempts to keep Ms Bhutto out of the October elections would instigate masses and give air to provincialism. “It is also pre-poll rigging,” he said.

He said that the government was supporting the king’s party but the PPP would not let it grab power. Only free and fair polls could guarantee the real democracy in the country. —Reporter