PML-N protests Wana operation

LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz on Friday staged demonstrations across the province to protest the military operation in South Waziristan Agency and the government’s polices.

In Lahore, a protest demonstration was staged at Muslim Mosque outside Lohari Gate where provincial PML-N leaders castigated the government for the operation in Waziristan and “killing of innocent tribesmen on the pretext of apprehending Al Qaeda and Taliban remnants”.

Addressing demonstrators, PML-N MNA and Punjab General Secretary Khawaja Saad Rafiq said the operation in the Tribal Areas had caused upheaval among the tribal people and across the country.

He called the government’s treatment of nuclear scientists disgusting. The PML-N leader said the nation would not pardon Gen Musharraf for his U-turn on Kashmir and Afghanistan.

He said the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) was striving to end the anti-democratic policies of the Musharraf-led government inside and out of parliament and would continue to do that until the restoration of “true democracy in the country, saving Pakistan from becoming a US colony and bringing the real leadership back to the country”.

Naeem Akhtar, sister of detained nuclear scientist Dr Nazir Ahmed, said on the occasion that nuclear scientists had made the country impregnable and deserved appreciation but after their detention without any just cause, their families were forced to think that they had made a great mistake by developing the nuclear bomb.

She said the government was torturing the detained scientists who had fallen ill.

“Where should we go? Whom should we appeal to as there is no real president and prime minister in the country? Who will listen to us?” she asked. PML-N leaders Haji Muhammad Hanif, MPA Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor and Mian Marghoob Ahmed also addressed the party workers. —Staff Report

Home | National