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Thursday, July 10, 2008

APDM to launch anti-government drive next month

* Alliance threatens to besiege Islamabad if Musharraf addresses parliament
* Turns down govt’s request to protest at selected places

By Muhammad Bilal

ISLAMABAD: The All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) on Wednesday announced to launch a countrywide protest against the government from next month over the unprecedented inflation, deteriorating law and order and the government’s failure to reinstated the sacked judges. The alliance also threatened to besiege the federal capital if President Pervez Musharraf addressed a joint sitting of parliament. “The government has miserably failed to come up to the people’s expectations ... we have decided to launch a countrywide movement from next month,” APDM leader Liaquat Baloch told a news conference after chairing a meeting of the steering committee at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) secretariat. Baloch said the APDM leadership would meet on July 28 to make a final decision regarding a timeframe for the movement’s launch. Sources privy to the meeting said there was consensus amongst the 25-member steering committee to launch the protest movement from August 14. He said the meeting had deliberated on various options for the movement including demonstrations, rallies, wheel-jam strikes and symposiums. “We had suspended our activities to give enough time to the new government but it disappointed the people. It has also begun toeing the line of US policies, much like Musharraf,” he said. Baloch criticised Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s 100-day plan and said the sacked judges had not been restored nor had Musharraf – despite the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) having the required strength in the parliament – been impeached. He said the steering committee rejected the PPP’s proposed constitutional package and the party’s move to increase the number of Supreme Court judges through the finance bill. “This government’s priority is to protect the judges who took oath under the PCO [Provisional Constitution Order] instead of reinstating all sacked judges to their November 2 positions,” he said, adding that the APDM would continue its unconditional support to the lawyers’ movement. Baloch also said that the alliance would try to stop Supreme Court Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar from addressing the People’s Lawyers Forum in Lahore. Selected places: Baloch turned down the Interior Ministry’s request to stage a protest demonstration only at specific places in the capital, in wake of the security situation.
Courtesy Daily Times

 

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