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:
“A general loathing of a gang or sect usually has some sound basis in instinct.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“... strike the words “white male” from all your constitutions, and then, with fair sailing, let us sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish together.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“It is not unkind to say, from the standpoint of scenery alone, that if many, and indeed most, of our American national parks were to be set down on the continent of Europe thousands of Americans would journey all the way across the ocean in order to see their beauties.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“You will think me very pedantic, gentlemen, but holiday though it may be, I have not the smallest interest in any holiday, except as it celebrates real and not pretended joys.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)