The Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) on Monday said that rampant corruption, price-hike, sugar, cement crises and lawlessness were suffocating the masses and could take them to streets any time against the rulers.
PPPP Secretary General Raja Pervaiz Ashraf told a news conference here at the PPPP's media centre that a stage, where the civil society could come on streets and roads, had prepared.
To a question, he said for the first time, thousands of people recently blocked the GT Road at Gujar Khan for hours, protesting against power load-shedding, which reflected their sentiments towards the rulers.
Referring to the retired army officers, technocrats, and politicians' letter to President General Musharraf, asking him to put off uniform, Pervaiz Ashraf said it had been realised even by the military men that to rule the country was not the army's 'cup of tea.'
Castigating President Musharraf's recent address to the nation, the PPPP leader questioned why he (Musharraf) did not apprise the nation of factors behind price-hike of all the essential commodities such as sugar. "Whenever, the army has assumed power, it has weakened this prestigious institution," he maintained.
About the proposed no-trust motion against Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, he said the contacts of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) were on with other opposition leaders and the timing and strategy of the move would be decided at a joint meeting within three or four days.
"We know as per the number game, the situation is not very encouraging, but still we guess we can drum support even from the ruling coalition," he argued.
In the light of the Supreme Court's historic judgement against the Pakistan Steel Mills' privatisation fiasco, Musharraf, who always talked about the opposition's corruption, should have resigned, after sending the government home.
Raja Ashraf was of the view that the decision had exposed the entire privatisation process since the government took over, saying that few families were setting up industrial empires and politics of feudalism was making life a hell for the common man.
"KSE crash, sugar, cement crises, and cartalisation in other sectors, petroleum companies pocketing billions due to faulty petroleum products' pricing formula, the masses feel increasingly suffocated," he contended. The PPPP leader said all this corruption saga was taking place under the nose of Musharraf and he was looking the other way.
Reacting to the ministers' statements that the incumbent assemblies would 're-elect' General Musharraf, he said that they were committing moral crime by saying so.
"It is a cruel joke with the people and democratic institutions. The opposition will not let Musharraf succeed in this move. We will resign en masse," he said. He brushed aside some reports indicating that the government and the PPPP were carving a deal, saying there was no such a possibility.
Turning his guns towards the National Accountability Bureau, he alleged that it was earning a bad name abroad, by running after the opposition. "It should be named the Opposition Accountability Bureau instead", Pervaiz Ashraf proposed.