Thursday, February 26, 2009
By our correspondent
Karachi
**A large number of supporters of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) staged a demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Wednesday to protest the disqualification verdict of PML-N leaders Mian Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif.
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Demonstrators and activists of the PML-N chanted slogans against the Pakistan People’s Party-led government for orchestrating disqualification of the Sharif brothers through the apex judiciary. The PML-N Sindh leaders, including Saleem Zia, Sardar Rahim, Ali Akbar Gujjar, and Zain Ansari, addressed the demonstrators and lambasted the government for showing intolerance against the opposition.
The PML-N leaders said the apex judiciary had ruled against eligibility of Sharif brothers out of fear. They said that the Sharif brothers had always acted to strengthen national institutions instead of pursuing personal gain, and this was the reason they were being debarred from holding public office and do public service.
Speaking to the demonstrators, PML-N Central Information Additional Secretary, Sardar Rahim, said that the incumbent rulers were fearful of the planned lawyers long march next month. He was hopeful that that deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Chaudhry, would surely expose misdeeds of the authorities after being restored.
Leaders also said that pro-public policies of Shahbaz Sharif as Punjab chief minister, including lowering the prices of Roti, had provided much needed relief to the masses of the Punjab. They said that the Supreme Court’s decision to disqualify Shahbaz Sharif would hamper the party’s mission to provide socio-economic relief to the people.
PML-N activists protest Sharifs’ disqualification
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Hundreds of people in Azad Kashmir**, backed by lawyers, staged a protest in Muzaffarabad. “We reject illegal courts,” they chanted along with “Zardari’s judiciary is unacceptable.” Lawyers in Kashmir announced a court boycott for Thursday.
**Party workers in Quetta **staged a rally where the local leader of PML-N Ayaz Swati said the “government will now face a very strong public reaction”. Amanullah Baloch, president of the lawyers association in Quetta, said Nawaz was “being punished for demanding independent judiciary”. Lawyers express “complete solidarity” and “fully back his struggle”, he told a news conference.
