LAHORE, March 31: MMA President Qazi Husain Ahmad alleges that the government is threatening traders and transporters to prevent them from taking part in the April 2 wheel jam strike and shutdown. He has also charged the government with trying to gag the print media by threatening it to stop issuing official advertisements if it published promos of the MMA regarding the strike.
The strike call has been given by the religious-party alliance to protest against high prices of essentials, unemployment and lawlessness in the country. Speaking at a press conference at Mansoora on Thursday, he said interior minister Aftab Sherpao’s threat of invoking the anti-terrorism law against protesters and those who would instigate people to go on strike, showed that the protest call had frustrated the government which had started taking undemocratic steps.
“Ours is a democratic society where the masses have the (democratic) right to go on strike,” he said. The masses, he said, were fed up with daily increase in taxes and charges effected without taking parliament into confidence. He said concentration of wealth in a few hands was the outcome of the government’s policies against which the people wanted to express resentment through the strike.
The Qazi said the strike call had bewildered the government, which had started hurling threats to the potential participants. Police had been deployed in every street and on roads to intimidate and prevent the masses from joining the protest, he alleged.
He appealed to the supporters of the strike not to block way of any ambulance, or students heading towards their institutions.
Answering a question, the Qazi ruled out talks with Gen Musharraf who “has backed out of his earlier promise.”
About MMA Secretary-General Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s statement on participation of the NWFP chief minister in the National Security Council meeting, the MMA president said the federal government was vexing the provincial government by not giving it lawful rights.
The federal government was also not allowing the NWFP to sign agreements with foreign countries to coerce it to attend the NSC meeting.
He vowed to earn the province constitutional right by waging struggle.
MINISTER: Punjab Auqaf and Religious Affairs Minister Sahibzada Saeedul Hasan Shah has called upon ulema to oppose the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal strike call in their Friday sermons.
Speaking at a meeting of the Ittehad Bainul Muslameen Executive Committee here on Thursday, the minister said ulema should apprise the people of the dangers of negative politics in the backdrop of MMA’s strike call.
He maintained the strike was against the human rights and social traditions, and those who had given a call for it wanted to get political mileage by inconveniencing masses.
The ulema attending the meeting announced support to government policies.
SMALL TRADERS: The All-Pakistan Cottage Industries and Small Traders Welfare Association has rejected MMA’s strike call.
Association chairman Ghulam Sarwar Malik said, in a statement, the cottage industry would not participate in the strike as it could not help solve their problems.