The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) has demanded free and fair elections forthwith under the supervision of an independent Election Commission and an interim government be formed with the consent of joint opposition.
ARD Vice President and Chief of Pakistan Democratic Party Nawabzada Mansoor Ahmed Khan said this while talking to his party members here on Sunday.
He said that ARD in its recent meeting in Lahore had declared Pervez Musharraf government a security risk for the country and said that the country would suffer an irreparable loss if the present military regime remained in power for long.
It was necessary that transparent elections should be held in the country without any delay and allowing exiled leaders Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to contest them, he added.
He said that there was no difference in the component parties of ARD but the state-controlled media and rumour-mongers were trying their best to disintegrate the Alliance.
To a question, Nawabzada Mansoor Ahmed Khan hoped that ARD might be an election alliance in the forthcoming general election, but he said, the leadership staying abroad could decide it.
He said that other allied parties of the ARD were also taken into confidence about the ongoing talks between the PPP and the PML (N), especially with regard to Shahbaz-Benazir meeting held in Dubai last month and the coming round of talks between the two parties leadership.
He said the ARD stood for restoration of 1973 Constitution as it existed before October 12, 1999. The current assemblies, he said, had become rubber stamps under the de-shaped Constitution. Raising serious doubts about the appointment of new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) by the government, he said that the same was not undertaken in consultation with the Opposition.
If the new CEC was really independent, he should prove his neutrality by stopping General Musharraf from addressing PML (Q) public meetings, he said, adding, that March 23 gathering of the Q-league was organised in connection with the election preparations.
He expressed his concern over the prevailing unrest in the provinces of Balochistan and NWFP.
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