ISLAMABAD, 5 September 2005 — Opposition parties yesterday decided to launch a nationwide anti-Musharraf movement next week with a general strike on Friday to protest warming up of ties between Pakistan and Israel, sources said.
The strike call given by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, (MMA), a six-party Islamic alliance, has been backed by other opposition parties.
The fire-brand chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, while condemning the first official meeting between Pakistan and Israel, demanded resignation from President Pervez Musharraf.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri met his Israeli counterpart in Istanbul this week.
Qazi strongly opposed dialogue between foreign ministers of Pakistan and Israel, saying that this was a diversion from Pakistan’s principled stand, as the latter had marred the political and ideological struggle of Palestinians.
Leaders at the meeting were of the opinion that the government was trying to redesign the country’s foreign and internal policies on the advice of US and convert it into a secular state for which “the people will never forgive military rulers”.
“Recognition of Israel is not in our favor but it definitely serves US interests. Such a decision will isolate us in the Muslim world,” former chief of the ISI, Gen. Hamid Gul said.
Qazi, who is also chief of the MMA, said the opposition would launch a public campaign to force Musharraf to step down both as president and army chief.
“The opposition will launch a countrywide protest campaign if Gen. Musharraf and his government would not resign,” Qazi told a news conference in Islamabad.
“We will start our campaign against President Musharraf on Sept 9. A countrywide strike will be observed.”
“A person (Musharraf) is imposing his wishes on this nation. He is changing policies on Kashmir and Palestine without taking Parliament into confidence,” he added.
The JI constituted an 11-member committee comprising of Hafiz Hussain Ahmad, Syed Munawwar Hassan, Muzaffar Iqbal Jhafra, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Sajid Mir, Abida Hussain, Hameed Gul, Maulana Abdul Jalil Naqvi and others, to coordinate with the JI’s rank and file as well as all-like-minded parties to make the countrywide strike successful, MMA spokesman Sarfaraz Ahmad said.
The Friday’s strike call was given at a meeting of opposition groups hosted by the MMA and attended by an alliance of liberal groups including the Pakistan Peoples’ Party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League, scholars, lawyers, retired army generals and judges.
Opposition PPP’s top leader Makhdoom Amin Faheem, endorsed Qazi’s demand and called upon all the opposition parties to come together to oppose government’s initiative to shake hands with the Jewish state.
Though, the opposition-backed protest is unlikely to pose any serious challenge to the government led by Musharraf which enjoys comfortable majority in the Parliament, the move certainly shows growing cooperation between the opposition parties. Faheem also blamed Musharraf for taking part in the recently concluded local bodies elections.
The opposition leader also blasted Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for announcing a development package, worth 10 billion rupees for Hyderabad, during elections campaign.
He said that the prime minister’s announcement was in gross violation of the election code of conduct and, hence, the Election Commission should take punitive action.
Meanwhile, rejecting the local bodies elections as sham and far from free and fair, the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) Saturday asked its parliamentarians to get ready for resigning from the Parliament, demanding fresh elections under a neutral set-up with an independent Election Commission.
“We have asked all the parliamentarians belonging to ARD to get ready for final call to resign from the Parliament and when the process of receiving resignations will be completed, we would make them public,” said Faheem.
