LAHORE, April 23: Speakers at a seminar here on Tuesday termed the presidential referendum against the national interest.

The meeting was organized by the Joint Action Forum for People’s Rights at the Lahore Press Club.

Former Human Right Commission chief Asma Jahangir said “the general has held the nation at gunpoint and is maintaining his rule through gun power.”

She said the real face of Musharraf was slowly exposing and he was using referendum as a tool to extend his rule.

Rejecting the idea of accepting an army chief as country’s president, she said either there would be government of the people or the army and there was no third approach.

“As Gen Musharraf has said that he has left the decision of his future (rule) up to the masses, he should also allow the masses decide the future of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif,” she demanded.

She claimed that Gen Musharraf’s plane had not been hijacked on Oct 12, 1999, and the whole drama had been enacted to hijack the country.

Challenging the claim of the army government that the silent majority of the masses was with it, she said government employees were being forced to attend Gen Musharraf’s public meetings.

Describing the referendum as the beginning of ‘strangling democracy’, she said “what kind of democracy is this in which the prime minister remains in his office until he supports the reform agenda.”

Condemning the baton charge of journalists and forceful exit of honest judges, she said a government was being established by promoting thug judges, thug journalists and thug politicians.

She said the government was blackmailing the newspaper owners and offering them advertisements as incentives to win their support.

She urged the political parties to prepare an agenda that could strengthen the political forces.

She wanted the Election Commission to announce each and every detail of voting pattern in the referendum otherwise its results would be taken as bogus.

Intellectual I.A. Rahman, who read out some parts of the referendum order, said there were more deceptions in the current referendum as compared to the one held in 1984 by Gen Ziaul Haq.

Terming the step against the nation, he said Musharraf’s announcement that he was needed for the continuity of the reforms agenda was wrong and unfair.

Challenging the government’s claim that it had improved the country’s economy, he said no step had been taken to create employment opportunities and alleviate poverty in the country. While there was also no activity on the stock exchange front as new companies were not being listed on the three bourses.

Labour Party secretary general Farooq Tariq said the reform agenda on the basis of which Gen Musharraf was seeking support in the referendum was anti-labour, anti-poor and anti-people.

Quoting a research report by an Islamabad-based organization, he said 6.8 million more people had gone under the poverty line during the last two and half years.

Chiding the Punjab governor for his statement that he had the courage the face criticism, he said the governor was not even ready to see some anti-government posters on city walls.

Mr Tariq condemned the railway minister for saying that he was trying to ensure that no passenger boarded the train without casting his vote in the referendum.

Lahore High Court Bar Association president Shahid Bhatti said Musharraf had occupied the country, sabotaged the Constitution and endangered the federating character of the country. Terming him a security risk, he demanded his immediate removal and transfer of power to public representatives.

Condemning the lawyers supporting the army government, he said the bar was discussing a proposal to cancel the licences of these lawyers.

Among others who spoke on the occasion were advocate Mian Jahangir, Rashid Rahman and Working Women’s Organization chief Rubina Jamil.