LAHORE, May 13: The Pakistan People’s Party alleged on Sunday that President Musharraf regarded himself as commander of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, but warned that consequences would be disastrous for the country if people in the armed forces started giving importance to the ethnicity factor.

At a news conference here, the PPP leaders said the MQM should not ignore the likely reaction in Punjab after the killings in Karachi on Saturday.

Leaders of the Punjab PPP executive committee and the Lahore Coordination Committee met at the residence of Khalid Ahmed Kharl and discussed the situation after Saturday’s violence in Karachi, as a result of which more than three dozen people lost their lives.

Provincial president Shah Mahmoud Qureshi, secretary-general Ghulam Abbas, former provincial president Qasim Zia, Altaf Qureshi, Munir Ahmed Khan, Haji Azizur Rehman Chan, Malik Mushtaq Awan, Aurangzeb Burki, Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed, Tahir Khaleeq and Iqbal Sialvi were among the participants.

“Gen Musharraf has activated an Urdu-speaking party, the MQM, and given a clear message that he is their commander. But the consequences will be dangerous if ethnicity factor penetrated the armed forces”, said Ghulam Abbas.

The PPP and other opposition parties would protest at GPO Chowk on Monday (today) at the killings in Karachi.

Criticizing the president for his claim that the turnout at the Islamabad rally showed the following he had among the masses, the PPP leader said Saturday was not the right time for Gen Musharraf to make such utterances as dozens of people had been killed in Karachi.

According to the PPP leader, only a few thousand people had participated in the rally for which hundreds of thousands of rupees had been spent.

Ghulam Abbas held the president, the governor and chief minister of Sindh responsible for the killings and said his party would call upon the central leadership of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy to have cases registered against the accused.

Whatever had taken place in Karachi was pre-planned, the PPP leader said.

He said now the PPP would stand by all opposition parties in whatever line of action they decided as a mark of protest.

Munir Ahmed Khan said the acting chief justice of Pakistan should initiate contempt proceedings against the Sindh homes secretary and the police inspector-general for the humiliation Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and the Sindh High Court judges had to face in Karachi on Saturday.

He said the PPP would continue its struggle for the unity of the federation.

Khalid Kharl said police and Rangers remained unmoved when innocent people were targeted on Saturday. He said the MQM was responsible for all deaths as nothing moved in Karachi without their consent.