Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari. – File Photo

SUKKUR: The Pakistan People’s Party announced on Sunday that it would hold a large public meeting at Kamoon Shaheed on the Sindh-Punjab border on May 12.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani are expected to address the public meeting which the party said would be attended by ‘one million people’.

The decision was taken by PPP’s Sindh council as a tit-for-tat response to the long march threat of PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah presided over the meeting held at the Ghotki circuit house.

Federal and provincial ministers and the party’s legislators attended the meeting.

PPP leaders Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, Shazia Marri and Taj Haider said that workers from Larkana and Sukkur divisions would attend the meeting.

Briefing reporters in Ghotki, Mr Shah said PPP workers would march on Lahore if Mr Sharif tried to sabotage democracy.

He said the PPP had been avoiding the politics of confrontation for four years because it did not want a political conflict, adding that the attitude of the PML-N was beyond comprehension because there was no justification for protests.

He said the PML-N raised a hue and cry on the conviction of Mr Gilani although the prime minister had the right of appeal.

Mr Shah said he would like to know how Nawaz Sharif went to Jeddah from Attock after his conviction and how he was acquitted.

He said that Z. A. Bhutto was hanged by the court in a fabricated case and since that time questions were being raised about the judiciary.

He said that the PPP had struggled for independence of judiciary and its 70 workers had sacrificed their lives for the cause and the party could do the same to protect democracy.

Mr Shah said the people of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would march from Lahore to Islamabad if Nawaz Sharif tried to harm democracy.

He said the PML-N and PTI were disgracing the five-year mandate given to the PPP by the masses.

He said the government had resolved longstanding issues of devolution of powers and the NFC through parliament.

He said the PPP had permanently closed the issue of Kalabagh dam.

Mr Shah said that Babar Awan had recited a verse of poem after which contempt of court proceedings were started against him.

He was yet to be formally charged while the court rapidly decided the case of the prime minister.

He said the judges disgraced Mr Gilani despite the fact he had announced restoration of inactive judges in his first speech in the National Assembly and freed them.