Opp meeting today to finalise protest plan

By Mohammad Imran

ISLAMABAD: The main leaders of the opposition will meet today to finalise a protest plan against President Pervez Musharraf.

“The meeting of the opposition parties will give final shape to the protest campaign scheduled against the president and the government,” Liaqat Baloch, the deputy secretary general of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) told Daily Times on Friday. “The opposition parties will protest rigging in the local council elections, deteriorating law and order, the price-hike and unemployment in the country,” he said.

A steering committee of the opposition parties has already chalked out a protest plan, he said. He said that the joint opposition had decided in its last meeting that it would not hold talks with the government in the future.

Sources said that the meeting of the opposition’s main leaders will follow the meeting of a subcommittee - comprising Liaquat Baloch, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, Iqbal Zafar Jahgra and Imran Khan - to plan the opposition’s strategy for the future.

Baloch said a protest campaign will thus be launched against the government, he said. He said that the steering committee members will also participate in the main leadership’s meeting. The steering committee had reviewed the anti-government protest campaign, to be launched in phases, through public gatherings, seminars and corner meetings, he said. He said that students, labourers, women and traders would take part in the nationwide protests.

He said that the protest strategy will be approved in the meeting, to be attended by Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and others. Baloch said that the opposition will seek public support for the protests during Ramazan through dinners and Quran conferences.

Online adds: Baloch admitted that the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam had been unable to agree on joint candidature for the local council elections in the NWFP, which was not a positive sign for the alliance.

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