General Strike and National Holiday
On 14 May 2007, opposition parties called for a general strike in Lahore, paralyzing the city and protesting the government response to the riots. 8,000 people, including lawyers and human rights activists, chanted "Out with Musharraf!" and "Death to Altaf Hussain!" In addition, protestors burned effigies of Musharraf and hundreds forced their way through a police barricade.
Authorities responded by banning demonstrations and declaring a national holiday. Shops were closed and public transportation was shut down in the country’s major cities. It is the largest strike in Pakistan since Musharraf assumed his presidency in 1999, with much of the unrest stemming from news reports that government troops were in Karachi,
Read more about this topic: 2007 Karachi Riots
Famous quotes containing the words general, strike, national and/or holiday:
“It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“The first to strike will gain the upper hand.”
—Chinese proverb.
“Nothing is so well calculated to produce a death-like torpor in the country as an extended system of taxation and a great national debt.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)
“With a broad shoehorn
I am unstuffing a big bird in this dream
Msomebody else’s holiday feast—
and repacking the crop of my own,
knowing it will burst with such
onion, oyster, savory bread crust.”
—Maxine Kumin (b. 1925)