QUETTA, March 23: Provincial chapters of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy and the Awami National Party have announced that protest rallies would be held in Quetta and other district headquarters of Balochistan on Monday.

Speaking at a joint press conference at the press club here on Friday, People’s Party Parliamentarians acting provincial president Jamal Khan Jogezai, ANP acting president Mehrab Khan Kakar and PML-N vice-president Syed Akhlaq Shah said the launch of the movement was aimed at restoring democracy in the country. They said PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif had agreed in their London meeting that democratic forces should join hands to launch a struggle to save the Constitution and the judiciary and to protect the national integrity.

They said the action against the chief justice had plunged the country into a serious crisis and it was the responsibility of political forces to launch a movement against “anti-people policies of the dictatorial regime.”

They said democratic forces, including the ARD and ANP, had extended support to lawyers in their struggle. The ARD and ANP leaders said they would continue to cooperate with bar associations and would also launch a separate struggle against the Gen Musharraf government.—Correspondent