LAHORE, Oct 12: The PML-N rejected on Saturday the general elections as massively rigged and launched a protest campaign against them with the determination to continuing it in the foreseeable future.

Simultaneously, it declared that it would support parties in the ARD and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal or any other party committed to the supremacy of the Constitution in forming government and even replacing Gen Musharraf as president.

An announcement in this regard was made at separate news conferences by party’s acting president Javed Hashmi and provincial secretary-general Khwaja Saad Rafiq.

Javed Hashmi, who is in NAB custody on corruption charges, talked to newsmen at the canteen of the Services Hospital with policemen sitting only a few feet away.

He said the regime could try to control the new assemblies, like the military rulers had been doing with such institutions in the past. But, he warned, consequences of such an attempt could be disastrous for the country.

The PML-N leader said his party would try to resist any attempt by the regime to have its acts indemnified by parliament. He said the assembly should not ratify any act of the regime or it would be fatal mistake.

Khwaja Saad Rafiq recalled how the government rigged the elections before their being held, on the election day and thereafter.

He alleged that the PML-N candidates were targeted and the regime wanted them defeated at all costs.

He said the party’s central working committee would be meeting during the next few days to decide future course of action. Courts would also be approached to get justice and a white paper would be issued to expose how the elections had been rigged.

When a newsman pointed out that none of the foreign observers had found any irregularity in the electoral process, Saad said these people could not trace the tricks used by manipulators.

Asked whether the protest campaign had the approval of Mian Nawaz Sharif or Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Saad said it was not needed. He said the party could take any decision for the province on its own.

He clarified that the protest campaign should not be taken as agitation.

Akram Zaki, party candidate for NA-125, who was first declared returned and then defeated, told newsmen how the elections were rigged. He said the party would call upon the Chief Election Commissioner to withhold the formal announcement of the result of his constituency.

Other candidates on various city constituencies narrated their personal experience about their constituencies.

Dr Asad Ashraf, Zaeem Husain Qadri, Farrukh Shah, Ayaz Sadiq, Pervaiz Malik, Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor and some others were also present.