May 20, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 03, 1428

HYDERABAD, May 19: The Hyderabad Grand Alliance has announced a three-point programme - to remove Musharraf and save Pakistan, seek a ban on the MQM, and an independent judiciary.

The programme was finalised during a meeting of the Steering Committee held here on Friday. Convenor of the alliance and MPA, Abdul Rehman Rajput presided, while minutes of the meeting were released to the press, on Saturday.

The meeting unanimously approved the three-point agenda, and membership of the Sindh National Party and the High Court Bar Association. Abdul Rehman Shaikh advocate will represent the bar. It extended support to a three-day strike call given by the Awami National Party.

The meeting decided to inform the public of the background of killings in Karachi on May 12, publish handbills, posters, and a whitepaper on the MQM about its alleged misdeeds during the last 20 years. It also decided to hold a seminar on May 24, on the three-point agenda of the alliance.

Meanwhile, a central leader of the MMA and senior vice president of the JUP, MNA Dr Sahibzada Abul Khair Muhammad Zubair said the Hyderabad Grand Alliance comprising all political parties had laid grounds for uniting people from all over Pakistan on one platform against terrorism.

In a statement faxed to Dawn here on Saturday, he said, “Ms Benazir Bhutto was correct in her assessment that General Pervez Musharraf was performing the role of MQM’s sector in-charge.” The Sindh’s chief minister conceded that the MQM possessed weapons, while adviser on home affairs, Waseem Akhtar, admitted to disarming police, he said.

Electronic media relayed around the world distribution of weapons among activists, while the home secretary admitted barricading of roads by the MQM, he said, adding: “Now there was no need of proof to tell who was responsible for the killings.”

He said unity among opposition parties had foiled the conspiracy to create ethnic conflagration in Sindh, once again. Those who attended the meeting included the JI leaders, Abdul Waheed Qureshi and Shaikh Shoukat Ali, the PPP leader Amanullah Siyal, the ANP leader Sher Zaman, the PML-N leader Afzal Gujjar, the JUI’s Moulana Taj Mohammad Nahiyoon, the SNF’s Mohammad Ayoub Shar, the SNP’s Ashraf Noonari, Moazzam Ali Shah of Shia Ulema Council and others.