The combined opposition attack would be launched on September one in Lahore when the 15-party alliance Pakistan Awami Ittehad (PAI) with backing of some other leading parties would hold a public rally against the Sharif government.

Haqqani alleged that a nervous government has already started resorting to threats against the opposition leaders adding, ``these are the last gasps of dictatorship'' as the public sentiments are increasingly finding expressions on country's streets.

The Lahore rally will be followed by a meeting of all the leaders of the parties in PAI on September two in which they will chalk out their next course of action against the Sharif government, Haqqani said.

On September four the opposition has plans ofobserving a complete strike in the entire Sindh province, including in Karachi, the country's commercial capital, against the imposition of general sales tax.

Oppn activists held

KARACHI: Some 300 opposition activists and politicians were arrested today in a crackdown that police officials said was aimed at preventing violence on the eve of an anti-government protest rally.

Those arrested were members of former PM Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and the ethnic-based Muttahid e Quami movement, whose power base is in southern Sindh province.