Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Punjab vice president Malik Ahmed Hussain Dehar criticising the government said President General Pervez Musharraf had dragged the army into politics as a last effort to tighten his hold over power.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Dehar said the Army had come under criticism for its involvement in political and civil matters. "It is time that the military should hold fair elections under an interim set up and return to barracks instead of taking a path to confrontation," he added. He said exiled politicians, including former premiers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto should be allowed to come back to lead their parties.
"Every institution should perform its prescribed role and the institution trespassing its defined limits should face criticism be it army or any other institution," he said. He said PPP agreed to the corps commanders' view that a minority should not be allowed to obstruct the majority. "But the only way to gauge the majority is to hold fair elections under a neutral interim government."
Dehar warned that if the elections were rigged it would endanger the country's existence. He said General Musharraf's PML-Q was falling apart, while the government's claims of press freedom had been exposed during the judicial crisis. He vehemently condemned the banning of Geo transmissions.