ISLAMABAD, Reuter, Oct.5: Pakistan’s opposition alliance to hold its first rally since a government clampdown in August at a hill town near the nation’s main military college.

‘A spokesman for Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) said today the mass meeting next Friday would be held in Abbottabad, 120 KM (75 miles) north of Islamabad.

The town, 1,200 meters (4,000 feet) up in the Himalayan foothills, is only a few KM (miles) from the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul.

The rally is part of a campaign to force military President Mohammad Zia ul Haq to hold general elections this year and will be the first since the opposition was paralysed by sweeping arrests and a ban on demonstrations in August.

‘The 10party Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) plans to mobilise support by holdings public meetings in the country’s four provinces every few weeks.

‘An MRD spokesman said last month the campaign would start ‘on October 10 with a rally in Peshawar, the volatile capital of North West Frontier province near the Afghan border.

But PPP provincial President Aftab Ahmad Sherpao said by telephone today that the local leadership had decided to hold the meeting in the east of the province instead.

“The reason we chose Abbottabad was that we had already held a rally in Peshawar, on May 1, and ‘we wanted to change the place to mobilize the population better”, he said.

Sherpao said he expected the main MRD leaders to attend Bhutto, 33, who returned form self imposed exile in April to a Tumultuous popular welcome, spent 26 days in jail after defying government ban on independence day demonstrations.

Interior Minister, Mohammad Khan Khattak told parliament last ‘week that 37 people, including 10 members of the security forces, ‘were killed in widespread agitation which followed the ban, and 217 injured.

The opposition puts the death toll much higher and says hundreds were injured and thousands of its activists jailed.

Khattak also said that in the agitation six hotels, three schools and a clinic were destroyed and 15 post offices, 32 railway stations and 38 telephone exchanges damaged.

Zia, who was ruled Pakistan since ousting Bhutto’s father in 1976, says new elections are not due until 1990. He holds by the legitimacy of nonparty elections held in February 1985, which ‘were boycotted by the main opposition forces.

The PPP, which is by far the most powerful member of the MRD, suffered a new blow on Saturday when the party President for Sind province resigned.

Makhdoom Khaliquz Zaman s at a in a press statement he was quitting in the interests of the party, but gave o specific reasons, He asked, however, to remain a member of the PPP Central Executive and praised Bhutto’s leadership.

Khaliq was appointed Sind President to replace Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, a senior member of the PPP ‘old guard who was sacked soon after Bhutto’s return from exile and has since formed a rival opposition party outside the MRD.

Article extracted from this publication >> October 10, 1986