LAHORE, Dec 9: The restoration of the 1973 Constitution would be on top of the agenda of the all parties conference (APC) being convened by ARD president Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan in the last week of the current month in Lahore.

Talking to reporters at the residence of ARD’s deputy information secretary Munir Ahmad Khan here on Sunday, the Nawabzada said the APC would also discuss the reported amendments to the Constitution by the army government, establishment of an independent Election Commission and a caretaker setup to hold fair and free polls.

All political and religious parties, Pakistan Bar Council and high courts bars, trade unions of journalists, labours and other professions were also being invited to the APC to build a “real national consensus” on the four issues, he said.

“I am glad that response from most of the parties contacted for the purpose was positive and the APC agenda was acceptable to all.”

He said he wanted to convene the meeting during Ramazan keeping in view the importance of the issues but on the insistence of some parties had to delay it till December-end. However, he would not give the exact date of the meeting.

Referring to the recent election results and transfer of power in two Saarc countries Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, he said “we want the tradition to take root in our country too.”

He said it was unfortunate that free and fair polls were never held in the country. An election commission whose integrity was relied upon by the whole nation was the need of the hour, he added.

The Nawabzada said there was also need to set up a broad-based interim government in the country so that no party could hijack the election results with the connivance of the administration and the results were acceptable to all and sundry.

He hoped that the world forums like the UN and the EU would extend moral support to their struggle for the revival of democracy in the country as the assembly of representatives of 140 million people of Pakistan would have its effect on international level.

He said a democratic government, however bad it is, was better than dictatorship for it had to respect the public opinion, while the dictators considered themselves as the absolutely wise. The Nawabzada said there had never been two opinions on the question of integrity of the country in other democratic states but Pakistan was unfortunate in this regard that not only parties but alliances did not believe in the integrity of the country.

“A political leadership is the need of the hour to unite the nation divided by dictators on the basis of region, race, language, creed and biradri,” he said. If the politicians were cornered, then the task of uniting the nation and preparing it for rendering sacrifices in the present crisis-like situation on borders would be impossible.

He expressed his apprehensions over the future policy of the new Afghan government and criticism by Tehran Radio of Pakistan’s Afghan policy during the Iranian foreign minister’s visit to Islamabad.

He said the army government had failed on internal as well as external fronts and it could not fulfil even a single point of its much propagated agenda.