PML-N stages anti-Zardari rally in Lahore

Pakistan

PML-N stages anti-Zardari rally in Lahore

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About 30,000 supporters of PML-N took to the streets in a protest rally on Friday in Lahore.

28 October,2011 06:31 pm

Participant set fire to an effigy of President Asif Ali Zardari and demanded that he quit.The Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) called the rally in order to exploit calls for early elections in its political heartland where it controls the Punjab provincial government despite being in opposition at a national level.Party faithful denounced corruption and widespread power cuts, calling President Zardari to step down before the governments five-year mandate expires in 2013.Go Zardari, go corruption, go load shedding, they chanted, in reference to the crippling power cuts that blight homes and businesses in much of Pakistan.Lahore, with a population of eight million, is Pakistans second-biggest city and the capital of the most populous provincePunjab, which commands the greatest number of seats in the national parliament. That makes it bitterly contested territory where opposition leaders are targeting the unpopular Zardari and trying to whip up future votes. They are looking to exploit disillusionment with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that swept to power in February 2008, two months after Zardaris wife, ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated.The whole city has converged here. Shame on the people who said PML-N has been isolated, shouted MP Saad Rafiq from the top of a moving truck. An effigy of the president was beaten and seat ablaze, again to chants of Go Zardari, go.Opposition followers danced as songs praising leader Nawaz Sharif blasted out at top volume. Others carried toy lions -- the animal is Sharifs election symbol -- shouting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.One police official told AFP on condition of anonymity that more than 30,000 people were in the crowd. An AFP reporter earlier estimated 10,000.PML-N spokesman Siddiqul Farooq declined to put a figure on the turnout saying: There is a sea of people. We just cannot count. Amid tight security, a large stage was set up with bulletproof glass next to hoardings of Nawaz and his brother Shahbaz, chief minister of Punjab.Nawaz is not expected to address the rally, but is scheduled to return from a private visit to Turkey later Friday. Police commandos were seen on the rooftops of buildings and Lahore police chief Malik Ahmed Raza Tahir told AFP that his officers were on high alert to prevent any possible attack by Islamist militants.Members of Zardaris party have lashed out at the Sharifs, accusing them of misappropriating Punjabs resources.They are using government resources and functionaries for their political show, Raja Riaz, who served as senior minister under Sharif when the PPP was briefly in the provincial ruling coalition, told AFP.An irritant for Sharif and Zardari is cricket-hero-turned-politician, Imran Khan, holding his own rally on Sunday at the Minar-e-Pakistan ground where the resolution for the creation of Pakistan was adopted on March 23, 1940.Campaigning by his Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) party, which boycotted the 2008 election, has sparked debate about the extent to which he will deprive the Sharifs of political support.