LAHORE – All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) staged a demonstration-cum-rally at the Press Club on Friday against the issuance of arrest warrant of Pervez Musharraf. The demonstration was attended by dozens of APML activists carrying Musharraf’s portraits and placards inscribed with slogans in Musharraf’s favour. They chanted slogans against the government for issuing arrest warrants of APML chief.
APML workers said that Musharraf could be the ‘only saviour’ of the country and the government should refrain from using immoral and unlawful tactics to restrain him from returning to the country. AMPL leaders Fawad Chaudhry and Hafiz Mohay Uddin addressed the participants and pledged that Musharraf will return to Pakistan very soon. APML spokesman and central leader Fawad said the warrant was issued in a bid to hide government’s incompetence.
“The present administration is conspiring against the former president,” he added. He questioned the credibility of the judge, who had issued a warrant of arrest of the former president who lives in London in exile. He said Musharraf had apprised Benazir Bhutto of the threats to her life time and again but the former prime minister, who was killed in December 2007 in Rawalpindi in a gun attack, ignored all such warnings and continued to compromise her security.
He claimed that Musharraf, the interior ministry, and security agencies went out of their way to make Benazir realize that extremist elements were after her life but she was too headstrong to take the heed. Hafiz Mohay Uddin said the charges laid against Musharraf were ‘laughable’ because they ignored the fact that heads of the states cannot be held responsible for the murders in their countries.
He lashed out at the judiciary and called the judge, who issued warrants against Musharraf, an ‘extremist sympathizer’. He said the judge was politically motivated and he cannot be trusted with this case.
