ISLAMABAD: In a phone call on Monday, PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari unsuccessfully tried to persuade PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to stay away from rallies to be organised by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) later this month.

But the Chaudhry refused to buy Mr Zardari’s arguments and abandon his plan to join the rallies, though he was told that the situation prevailing in the country called for an all out support for the military operation against terrorists.

Former president Zardari also made a similar call to Awami National Party (ANP) President Asfandyar Wali Khan. The ANP and the PML-Q were part of the ruling coalition led by the PPP.

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The PPP’s spokesperson, Senator Farhatullah Babar, said the phone calls were made from London. “Mr Zardari believes that it is necessary to engage other political forces for defending the constitution and democracy.”

In the telephonic conversations, he discussed with the chiefs of the PML-Q and ANP the current political situation.

“Mr Zardari keeps himself abreast with events taking place in the country and views with concern some recent developments,” Mr Babar said.

The PPP, he said, was committed to protecting democracy and constitutionalism.

The PTI chief, Imran Khan, has given a call for a long march from Lahore to Islamabad on Aug 14 in support of his demand for electoral reforms and other unspecified matters.

Sources in the PPP told Dawn that Mr Zardari talked to Chaudhry Shujaat for 12 minutes and asked him not to join PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri’s “revolution march.” The date for the march will be probably announced on Aug 10, when the PAT will observe ‘martyrs day’ to mourn the death of its workers in the police crackdown in Model Town, Lahore, on June 17. Police had come there to remove barriers from outside Dr Qadri’s house.

But PML-Q spokesman Kamil Ali Agha denied that Mr Zardari had asked Chaudhry Shujaat to stay away from the marches of the PTI and the PAT. The PML-Q will support the PAT in its protest.

He said the PPP chief emphasised that in the prevailing situation the whole nation should back the army and its massive operation Zarb-i-Azb against terrorists in North Waziristan. Chaudhry Shujaat and Mr Zardari agreed that national security should not come under threat.

The government has invoked Article 245 of the constitution to summon army in the federal capital for three months, apparently to prevent the PTI from staging a long march to Islamabad or a sit-in in the city.

Haji Adeel, the ANP’s Vice President, said before getting Mr Zardari’s advice, his party had decided that it would not participate in any anti-government march.

He said staging a march was a right of a political party but it should be peaceful and for positive goals instead of creating anarchy.

“Imran Khan has a right to stage a long march but if any untoward incident takes place or a single person is injured or killed in it he will be responsible for it,” the ANP leader said.

To a question about the army deployment in Islamabad, he said his party was against the ‘needles move’. “Such emergency measures are taken in case of war or an external aggression and not to face any internal threat,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2014