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:
“You don’t want a general houseworker, do you? Or a traveling companion, quiet, refined, speaks fluent French entirely in the present tense? Or an assistant billiard-maker? Or a private librarian? Or a lady car-washer? Because if you do, I should appreciate your giving me a trial at the job. Any minute now, I am going to become one of the Great Unemployed. I am about to leave literature flat on its face. I don’t want to review books any more. It cuts in too much on my reading.”
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)
“Submission is the only good;
Let me become an instrument sharply stringed
For all things to strike music as they please.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“Just so before we’re international,
We’re national and act as nationals.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“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)