LAHORE, May 5: A few thousand people — a majority of them teachers and other low-ranking employees of the Lahore City District Government and the Punjab Horticulture Authority — took part in a rally organised by the ruling PML here on Saturday in support of the reference President Pervez Musharraf has filed against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Only a few ministers and parliamentary secretaries and office-bearers of the ruling party were present. Town and union council nazims and all wings of the party had been given specific targets but all of them appeared to have failed to meet them.

The rally started from Luxmi Chowk and ended on the Napier Road-McLeod Road crossing, some two furlongs away.

Ministers Raja Basharat, Arshad Khan Lodhi, Chaudhry Zaheeruddin, Makhdoom Ashfaq Ahmed, Ijaz Shafi, Dr Tahir Ali Javed, Akhtar Rizvi, Ms Nasim Lodhi, Husain Jehanian Gardezi and Saeedul Hasan Shah and parliamentary secretary Dr Farzana Nazeer were present.

Others seen at the rally included Mian Mohammad Munir, Mian Abdus Sattar, Haji Shahbaz Ahmed, Faqir Husain Bukhari, Sohail Mehmud Butt, Begum Shahana Farooqi, Fareeda Suleri, Perveen Gill, Suleri, Shaheena Asad, Kanwal Naseem, Price Committee Chairman Khwaja Tahir Zia, deputy nazim Idrees Hanif and his father Haji Hanif.

Someone brought buses and vans which plied on various city routes, but without many participants for the rally. They came from the railway station and went back from Luxmi Chowk, leaving a false impression that the rally would be as well-attended as the number of vans.

Although the participants carried pictures of Gen Musharraf and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, their slogans were devoid of spirit, possibly because most of them had nothing to do with the party. They shouted slogans only in front of TV cameras.

Arshad Lodhi was perhaps the first to reach the venue of the rally. Later, Solid Waste Management’s yellow-trucks, with city government employees onboard, started coming. Some other employees were transported by other vehicles.

Chaudhry Zaheeruddin said in his address that Gen Musharraf had more supporters than his opponents. He said the PML would prove its claim on May 12.