Govt allows PDM to stage protest outside ECP office.

ISLAMABAD -- The government on Thursday finally decided to allow the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) to stage a protest outside the office of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) next week, but warned the 10-party opposition alliance not to take the law into its own hands.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the ministerial committee on law and order. Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed presided over the meeting.

Announcing the decision, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid expressed the hope that the opposition would respect the 'goodwill gesture' shown by the government and hold protest within the ambit of the law and the Constitution.

Others present on the occasion included Information Minister Shibli Faraz, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, Law Minister Barrister Farogh Naseem and Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry.

10-party opposition alliance warned not to take law into own hands

Mr Rashid said that there was a contradiction in the stance of the PDM as it was going to participate in the by-elections contrary to its allegation that the last elections had been rigged.

'They are going to participate in the same National Assembly (election) on whose election they have been objecting to,' the minister said. The opposition, he said, would also participate in the Senate elections which would be held in the first week of March.

Mr Rashid said that propaganda had been unleashed by the opposition, portraying the government as anti-Islam, and appealed to JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman not to raise those religious slogans which had the potential to create anarchy in the country.

The minister said that the JUI-F was holding an anti-Israel rally and it was trying to give an impression that a move was under way by the government to recognise Israel.

'Come what may, Imran Khan will never recognise Israel,' the interior minister said. He advised Maulana Fazlur Rehman to concentrate on Islam instead of Islamabad as 'Islamabad is not your destiny'.

The minister said that the prime minister wanted all religious forces to be respected as part of his vision to turn the country into a 'Riast-i-Madina-like' welfare state. He said there were 560 religious seminaries in Islamabad and only 92 of them were registered. He said the government had no objection to registration of the new ones.

In reply to a question whether the PDM was going to pressurise the ECP, Mr Rashid said the PTI had presented a record of 40,000 people in the foreign...