Number of trade bodies announce dissociation from strike

A number of trade bodies of Lahore who met Punjab Governor Salman Taseer have announced dissociation from traders strike on Friday. Qaumi Tajir Ittehad Chairman and Liberty Market President Safdar Ali Butt met the governor here on Thursday. The governor told the trade representatives that peaceful agitation and protest marches were a democratic right but closing of shops without the consent of the shopkeepers would not be allowed.
He said the government would support the trade community that opened up their shops on Friday. He said those who had been disqualified by the courts are talking of civil disobedience and agitation. Trade leaders said that they were against the shutterdown and would open up their shops during the day.
The governor said that PML-N during their tenure thrice enforced Governors Rule in the Country. He said if the Nawaz-League had been disqualified, the entire nation had not been disqualified. He said Governors Rule had not been put in force to derail some bodys government. He said until new Chief Minister was elected, the powers of chief executive were relegated to the governor.
He said Governors Rule was just a term and he had not enforced Section 144 or arrested somebody nor thrown Tear Gas or resorted to baton charge in Governors Rule. He said if Leader of the House was not there, you could not call an assembly session. The governor said that calling of session through requisition without approval of the governor had no legal sanction and was just a meeting. He said however to avoid confrontation the doors of the provincial assembly were kept opened.
He said by keeping a few members of forward bloc with them was nothing but an insult to political mandate of the masses. He said he would only summon the assembly session when he would feel satisfied that somebody had majority in the House.
The governor said that when PML-N people had asked PPP to quit Punjab government after disassociating at the federal level, he said advice was then given to PML-N ranks that their counting in the province was very fragile. He said if PPP quits the government at provincial level, PML-N would face difficulty in forming government here.
The governor on the occasion apprised the trader delegation of the security plan for Sri Lankan team. Around 60 leaders of different markets of Lahore were present on the occasion. Prominent among trade leaders were Maulana Bashir Ahmad Salfi, Muhammad Asghar, Arif Butt, Azhar Shah and Khawaja Jehangir.