KARACHI, 21 March 2005 — The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal’s (MMA’s) “million march” kicked off from Noorani Chowk here yesterday. Islamic parties staged a rally against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf saying he was not acceptable due to his pro-American policies.
This was the first of a series of five “million marches” scheduled to be organized by the MMA in major cities of the country as part of its campaign against soaring prices of essential commodities, unemployment and “secular” policies of the Musharraf government. The other rallies will be held in Lahore on March 23, Peshawar on March 25; Quetta on March 27; and in Islamabad on March 29.
During these rallies the MMA will mobilize public opinion against the government’s policies as well as against the US intervention in the affairs of Pakistan and other countries, especially Islamic countries.
“We will continue the struggle against Pervez Musharraf until he is ousted from power,” pro-Taleban Islamist leader Fazalur Rehman told his charged followers at the “million march” rally here.
“Musharraf is playing in the hands of America and distorting the Islamic identity of Pakistan,” Rehman said.
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, chief of Pakistan’s largest religious party Jamaat-i-Islami, in his address claimed that the “illegal government” of Musharraf was going to end shortly. “We will not accept any American tout as Musharraf’s replacement,” he said. Thousands of people gathered at the rally chanted anti-US and anti-Musharraf slogans. Some carried banners which read, “kill the people, rob the people, lick the boots of America” and “US aggression in Iraq not acceptable”.
