KARACHI, 12 February 2004 — The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will observe a protest week from tomorrow against what it calls the “illegal” actions of the government.
The PPP said the protest action would highlight the government’s “political victimization, faulty economic policies and deteriorating law and order situation.”
Protest camps will be organized throughout the country and sit-ins will be staged in every district, Azad Kashmir and the Northern areas.
The announcement came after a meeting of the party’s central executive committee, federal council, parliamentarians and district presidents held at the residence of Khalid Ahmad Khan Kharal, secretary-general of the federal council.
Later, briefing reporters, Kharal said the other parties of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) would also attend the PPP camps during the protest.
Asked about PPP leader Benazir Bhutto’s possible return to the country, he said they said the PPP had faith in people’s power and never needed assurances from the US for her return. “PPP supporters and the general public will decide the date for their leader’s return, but her presence in Pakistan will help the country out of its crisis,” he said.
The meeting passed seven resolutions related to the return of Benazir, the release of Asif Ali Zardari and opposition lawmaker Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, the merger of the PPPP-Patriots and the PPP-Sherpao, Pakistan’s nuclear program, the National Security Council, the appointment of opposition leaders to the National Assembly and the Senate, the government’s economic policies and price hikes and law and order.
A resolution passed by the meeting urged the government to take people into confidence on the nuclear issue and adopt Benazir’s doctrine of non-proliferation.
