Islamabad: Backing a call for a UN inquiry into the killing of former premier Benazir Bhutto, opposition alliance, the All Parties Democratic Movement, has said it will organise rallies across the country from January 22 to persuade people to boycott the Feb 18 elections.

The APDM, which includes the Jamaat-e-Islami and Imran Khan's Tehrik-e-Insaf, has formed a committee to persuade major opposition parties like the PML-N, Pakistan People's Party and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam to boycott the February 18 polls.

A meeting of APDM's joint action committee, held here yesterday, also decided to organise a three-day countrywide protest from January 11 against the shortage of flour, electricity and gas.

Condoling former premier Benazir Bhutto's death, the APDM held the government responsible for her assassination and blamed the administration for "conniving with foreign forces to harm the country's solidarity".

The APDM said it would organise rallies on alternate days in major cities to ask the people not to vote. The APDM asked PPP leaders to review their stance "towards elements who had killed 84 children in Bajaur Agency two years ago and created the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa situations and said the same people had played a part in Bhutto's assassination.

The coalition also opposed the Scotland Yard investigation into Bhutto's killing and backed the PPP's call for a UN-led inquiry.

Source : PTI