PML wants election in three months
Bureau Report

ISLAMABAD, Dec 11: The Pakistan Muslim League acting president, Javed Hashmi, has said that his party is not against the restoration of assemblies but it will not serve any purpose.

Talking to Dawn here on Monday, he said that the Alliance would decide the issue for Restoration of Democracy.

He said the alliance had a one point agenda - the restoration of democracy through elections.

"We demand the military government to hold free and fair elections within next 90 days to be supervised by a caretaker government, comprised politicians of the main political parties", Mr Hashmi said.

Responding to a question he said no purpose could be achieved even if the assemblies were restored. "The crisis, which has been created by the military rulers by removing our (PML) legitimate government, can not be undone even after getting the assemblies revived", he believed.

"The whole political leadership has been destroyed by the present government", he said adding that solution to all the problems lies in holding fresh elections.

A PML dissident, Ejazul Haq, when contacted, said that now there was no solution left but to revive the assemblies. "They will have to restore the assemblies now", he asserted.

He said the people's confidence had been shattered and the only way to restore that (confidence) was to restore the assemblies immediately. "What I know is that the government would now restore the suspended assemblies."

Mr Haq said time had come when the powers of the president should be restored in the Constitution to pack the assemblies in order to discourage the military interventions. "We need to strike a balance between the powers of the president and the prime minister to avoid crisis", he said.

PPI adds: Javed Hashmi assured Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan of his party's cooperation with the ARD following the principle as set by party president, Nawaz Sharif. Talking to the ARD chief, Mr Hashmi expressed the hope that the allaince would expedite its struggle for restoration of democracy.   (Dawn, Dec 12, 2000)