ISLAMABAD, 8 January 2007 — About 8,000 people rallied in Khar, the capital of the northwestern Bajour tribal agency, yesterday demanding that the government calls off a by-election for a seat in the national Parliament.
Sahibzada Haroon Rashid, the lawmaker from Jamaat-e-Islami — Pakistan’s largest Islamic group — has resigned to protest a military raid on an Islamic school in which 80 people died on Oct. 30.
President Pervez Musharraf has said that suicide bombers were being trained at the school. But regional tribesmen have disputed the official account, saying that civilians, including children studying at the facility, died in the air strike. The by-election is scheduled for Jan. 10. “Our grief is continuing,” Rashid told the rally. “It is not the time for us to sit in the Parliament.”
Jamaat-e-Islami decided yesterday to set up protest camps at the Bajour. Jamaat chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad earlier contacted the chief election commissioner and asked him to postpone the by-election since tension continues in Bajour.
Hussain Ahmad later asked political agent of Bajour to postpone the by-election but sources said the federal government was determined to hold the by-election.
The Mutteheda Majil-e-Amal also asked people of Bajour to socially boycott those who have filed their nomination papers for the vacant seat of the National Assembly.
