KARACHI, 5 November 2003 — About 200 opposition members of Parliament and workers staged a rally in Islamabad yesterday to demand the release of two political prisoners, Asif Ali Zardari and Javed Hashmi.
They marched from the Parliament building to the Supreme Court, just 100 meters away, shouting “Go Musharraf Go” and “No LFO No”.
Police were present in large numbers at the scene but did not interfere with the protesters denouncing the military president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and the constitutional amendments he imposed through his Legal Framework Order.
Musharraf reintroduced parliamentary democracy under LFO last year.
Hashmi, a sitting MP and acting president of the faction of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), was arrested last week on charges of inciting mutiny in the army.
Zardari, husband of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, completed seven years in detention yesterday.
He was arrested on Nov. 4, 1996, the day his wife was dismissed on corruption charges.
His Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said in a statement that he is being kept in solitary confinement.
“Pakistani law provides for statutory bail after two years in jail but this is denied to him. There are seven accountability references and six criminal cases pending against him since 1996. He is being tried in special courts under special laws,” the statement said.
In a press interview during his recent appearance in a court, Zardari told the daily Ausaf that government emissaries offered him release under a deal but he refused.
A court gave a further nine-day remand of Hashmi yesterday.
Earlier, Hashmi was brought under strict security to the Civil Judge Rana Naeem’s court in the federal capital. Police had requested further remand of the ARD leader.
The MMA has announced to mark Friday next as Protest Day against the arrest of Hashmi, against the LFO and also against the military door to door search operations in tribal and northern areas.
The alliance of six religious parties Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal is playing a central role in such demonstrations.
MMA leaders although announced their separate protest strategy against the military operations in Pakistani Tribal and Northern Areas, against the detention of Hashmi, against the LFO and also against the measures undertaken on American dictation in the name of Al-Qaeda.
On Monday the opposition in the National Assembly agitated in front of the dais of the speaker, chanted slogans against LFO and demanded production orders for Hashmi.
