KARACHI, July 5: The Pakistan People’s Party, Karachi chapter, on Tuesday held a protest demonstration in front of Karachi Press Club against price hike and sacking of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s government on July 5, 1977. The demonstration, led by Rashid Rabbani, Rafiq Engineer and Raheel Iqbal, was attended among others by Prof N.D. Khan, Waqar Mehdi, Khalil Qureshi Advocate, Syed Aijazudin Shah, Qasim Baloch, Habibuddin Junaidi, Ismail Pasha, Nasrin Chandio, and Arshad Naqvi.

Wearing black armbands, the protestors shouted slogans against the government and anti-democratic forces. They were carrying placards and banners inscribed with slogans like “Down with military dictatorship, restore 1973 Constitution, withdraw cases against Benazir Bhutto, Yousuf Raza Gilani, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, release Guddo Behari and other leaders”.

Addressing the protesters, Prof N.D. Khan said that military rulers were not ready to learn any lesson from the fall of Dacca and alleged that they (military rulers) were pushing the country towards destruction.

Rashid Rabbani, MPA Rafiq Engineer, Rahil Iqbal in their addresses alleged that the constitution and democracy were in limbo. They said that the ever increasing oil prices had ended the purchasing power of the masses. They asked all the democratic forces to join hands for restoration of democracy in the country. —PPI