ISLAMABAD, Sept 20: Opposition parties have decided to hold a protest demonstration and a public meeting in Lahore on Thursday against the ongoing alleged victimization and rigging in the third phase of the local polls by the Punjab government.

This was disclosed by Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) MNA Khawaja Saad Rafiq while talking to a group of reporters at the Parliament House here on Tuesday.

Mr Rafiq said the protest demonstration would be held outside the historic Muslim Mosque at Lohari Gate and it would be attended by leaders of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA).

He said that MMA leader Liaquat Baloch and secretary general of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Jahangir Badar would also speak on the occasion besides other prominent leaders of the two opposition alliances.

He said that he had handed over a written complaint to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during the National Assembly session on Tuesday apprising him about the “illegal and undemocratic acts” of the Punjab government in the province.

He said the whole state machinery was being used to victimize opposition candidates and leaders. He said that the prime minister had assured him that he would look into the complaints.

Mr Rafiq alleged that false cases were being registered against opposition candidates and their supporters to discourage them from participating in the third phase of the local polls.

He alleged that five opposition candidates had been kidnapped in Lahore to get the government-backed candidates elected unopposed in Nishtar Town.

Mr Rafiq said if the government continued to victimize opposition parties and their candidates in the same manner, then it would, perhaps, be the last elections under the Gen Musharraf regime in which the opposition would take part.

He said not only opposition parties but the people of Pakistan also believed that free and fair elections were not possible under the Musharraf regime.