Strongly rejecting the government assertion not to allow Benazir Bhutto to take part in elections, the Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) on Saturday insisted she would be back to run for either the slot of president or prime minister.
Referring to a meeting chaired by President General Pervez Musharraf on Friday, PPPP Finance Secretary Senator Dr Babar Awan during a news conference here dubbed the decision as highly shameful, immoral and unconstitutional.
Dr Awan called upon the Supreme Court and the Chief Election Commissioner to take notice of what he called the first instance of pre-poll rigging and said otherwise, it would be construed that the CEC was merely a government employee sans powers.
"We reject with full force this official decision, which is unique in the mankind's political history, and challenge Musharraf that our leader will stage a comeback come what may, let there be announcement of the election schedule," he maintained. PPPP Media Centre office-bearers, Captain Wasif (Retd) and Nazir Dhoki, were also present during the news conference.
Senator Awan, who is by profession a lawyer, contended that Artilce-4 (b) of the Constitution provides equal status of all the citizens and that the law equally protected all the countrymen.
He made it clear that the PPPP would not allow this constitutional guarantee to be trampled by a coterie of turncoats, a reference towards the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, made up of PML (Nawaz), PPPP and some lawmakers of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal. Senator Dr Babar Awan said the Opposition would fully resist at the national and international fora any bid to keep Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif out of the political process.
"The rulers want to trigger confusion by adopting a confrontational path with the Opposition's largest party so that elections could not be held, but we will force them to remain on track," he emphatically said.
He believed that the ruling coalition was in tatters, as it was evident from a chain of allegations, ranging from king of lotas, bhatta khors, street crime king to commission mafia being exchanged between the PML and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
The PPPP leader asked President Musharraf to desist from hurling threats to the popular leadership, saying another dictator did the same and today, no one remembered him. "The military should stop conspiring to shake the roots of the federation and democracy," he said. He charged that the President House become a 'den of conspiracies' and with a well-conceived ploy, statements were being issued against PPPP leadership.
Senator Babar urged all the democratic forces, NGOs and other civil institutions both local and abroad to condemn the statements, targeting their leader. Later, replying to questions, he said the government had three different stances on PPPP leader: that she would be brought back through the Interpol; she can return if and when she decides to, and lastly she could neither come back nor contest elections.
Senator Babar that a confusion was being created about the return of PPPP leader, saying within hours this confusion would be removed after the election schedule is announced.
He doubted whether or not Musharraf would be around on the occasion of elections, keeping in view his confrontational policies. To a question, he believed that the President could not be a candidate for the slot of the head of the state for reneging a commitment to the nation.