ISLAMABAD, SEPT 1: In the first of a series of major agitations, angry traders protesting the imposition of new taxes joined opposition parties intent on forcing Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday.The demonstrations, which brought together hardline Islamic parties and traditional Opposition groups, started in Sharif's home town of Lahore on Wednesday evening and are stated to be the biggest since he was elected in 1997.Sharif has played down the significance of the demonstrations, saying protests cannot reverse the huge majority he won in February 1997 elections. ``They won't harm the government,'' he told a rally on Tuesday.But behind-the-scenes attempts to defuse the protests reveal government concern that they could snowball as it administers tough economic medicine prescribed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) despite pledges the ``common man'' will not be taxed further, political sources said.Finance Minister Ishaq Dar tried in vain on Tuesday to head off a tradersprotest set for September 4 across Pakistan that has support of major Opposition political parties. The Lahore protest on Wednesday is the first of three demonstrations which culminate with a rally by the Jamaat-i-Islami Islamic Opposition group of Qazi Hussain Ahmad next Monday.Opposition parties have rallied behind the protest to add weight to a ``Sharif out'' campaign they have waged since he ordered fighters to leave Kashmir's Kargil heights in July under world pressure to head off a fourth Indo-Pakistani war.Ahmad's party, as well as the Pakistan People's Party led by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, have all backed the protests, sensing that government popularity is ebbing since a retreat from Kargil which they call a ``betrayal.''The government says it pulled the fighters out - India says they included Pakistani troops but Islamabad says they were only Kashmiri ``freedom fighters'' - after winning a pledge of US support in the 52-year-old dispute with India over Kashmir.Islamicgroups accuse Sharif of a U-turn on a key policy of successive governments on Kashmir and a betrayal of myriad Muslim militant groups waging a guerrilla war there.Sharif said on Tuesday that a pledge by US President Bill Clinton to take a ``personal interest'' in Kashmir was without precedent and has internationalised a flashpoint issue that the world community was in danger of forgetting.The target of the traders' protest is the imposition of a 15 per cent general sales tax (GST) at retail level, a demand of the IMF which small traders say will ruin them.``The method that is being adopted to raise the taxes has a wrong direction which is keeping the taxpayers away from the system,'' said Tariq Sayeed, former president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry.``So everybody is disturbed.Exporters are disturbed, industry is disturbed, importers are disturbed so if all the sectors of the economy are disturbed how can the economy improve? It's beyond my imagination,'' hesaid.
