SAHIWAL, Feb 26: Punjab PML-N president Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khosa, secretary-general MNA Khwaja Saad Rafiq and women wing leader MNA Memona Hashmi have said that a date for the return of former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif would be announced by the central ARD leadership.

They were speaking at a press conference at the residence of ARD district secretary-general Malik Nadim Kamran here on Wednesday night. They demanded registration of cases against Gen Niazi, Yahya Khan, Gen Ziaul Haq and Gen Pervez Musharraf. The army must be stopped from disgracing country politicians and nuclear scientists, they said.

Mr Rafiq said the PML-N and other parties would scrap the 17the amendment to the constitution on coming to power. ARD district president Mehr Ghulam Farid Kathia and Malik Kamran said all arrangements had been finalised for a decisive meeting of the ARD in Sahiwal on March 7. Rumours about its cancellation were part of government's disinformation campaign, they claimed.

LAWYER KILLED: Three armed bandits killed a senior lawyer and injured his wife seriously in a dacoity bid early Wednesday morning. Sources said the bandits had forcibly entered the residence of Advocate Rashid Anwar in Farid Town and held his son Ahsan Rashid hostage at gunpoint.