QUETTA, July 5: The Balochistan chapter of the People's Party Parliamentarians on Monday observed a black-day to condemn the 1977 military takeover and termed the overthrow of elected democratic governments an unconstitutional step.

Speakers at a public meeting held at the Sarawan House here vowed to continue the struggle to accomplish the mission of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to liberate the people from oppression, injustice, and political victimization.

PPP's parliamentary leader in the Balochistan Assembly Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani criticized what he termed President Gen Musharraf's anti-people policies that were aimed at undermining the people's constitutional and democratic rights.

Nawab Raisani said that in other countries, the President's House was the symbol of federation, but in Pakistan it was used for hatching conspiracies to topple elected democratic governments to protect personal interests.

The PPP leader said that 56 years after independence, the country was without political or economic stability, adding that anti-people rulers always formulated policies to suppress the voice of their political opponents and denied the constitutional rights to the people.

He said that party's chairperson Benazir Bhutto enjoyed the people's support all over the country but military rulers had always tried to obstruct her return. Nawab Raisani blamed the military oligarchy for the constitutional, political and democratic crisis and said that the people would not have been confronted with numerous problems if the army despots had not interfered in political matters.

The PPP leader asserted that the party's leaders and its supporters would not be deterred by conspiracies, oppression, and arrests and said President Musharraf, like his predecessors Gen Ziaul Haq and Field Marshal Ayub Khan, would fail in crushing the PPP.

He denounced the military operation in Wana and condemned the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal's leadership for keeping silent over what he termed atrocities in the South Waziristan tribal area, adding that the theocratic alliance was exploiting religion to achieve personal gains but the people could now differentiate between political deals and real politics.

Nawab Raisani, while criticizing former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, said that while he had done nothing for the people of Balochistan during his 19-month tenure but the way the Baloch politician had been insulted was regrettable, adding that Mr Jamali was far better than Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain.

He criticized the Balochistan government's PSDP allocations and said that the senior provincial minister had allocated Rs2.3 billion for his own constituency while ignoring Mastung, Musakhel and other areas were ignored in the development programme. Jamal Khan Jogezai, Dr Hayatullah Durrani, Syed Iqbal Shah, Syed Sadaullah Shah and others also spoke on the occasion.