ISLAMABAD, March 31: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has rejected the proposed referendum as well as President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s holding the office of chief of the army staff (COAS) after October 2002.

A party spokesman on Sunday said the PPP also rejected the constitutional amendments that had been made by an individual. It also says no to the plan to give any role to the army chief in governance other than that as a public servant under the federal government, he said.

The PPP also dismissed Gen Musharraf’s contention that its chairperson Benazir Bhutto would not be allowed to return to take part in the elections, as wishful thinking of a dictator who was haunted by the spectre of illegitimacy in his search for a political role for himself after October 2002.

“It is constitutionally wrong and morally perverse for the general to make his personal aggrandisement and lust for political power a national issue on which opinion of the people of Pakistan is to be sought in a national referendum,” he maintained.

Rejecting President Musharraf’s allegation that Ms Bhutto had plundered the national wealth, the PPP spokesman said, “the plunderers of the nation’s moral, financial, constitutional and institutional assets are mostly to be found among the generals as has been revealed graphically in the Hamood Commission Report.”

He said the constitution had laid down an elaborate procedure for the election of president, which left no place for a referendum on this issue.

Rejecting President Musharraf’s contention that there was no role for Ms Bhutto in the politics of the country, he said, “let it be known that Ms Bhutto will return to the country and take part in the elections.”

OUR STAFF REPORTER IN RAWALPINDI ADDS: The local PPP leaders have announced that the party plans to launch a campaign for the return of its chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, to the country, from April 4.