October 23, 2002	Wednesday	Sha’aban 16,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 22: The Pakistan People’s Party on Tuesday vowed to remain firm on what it called its principled stand on constitutional issues and supremacy of parliament that it said could be a common ground for the formation of a government of national consensus.

A joint meeting of the central executive committee and the federal council held here under the presidentship of Makhdoom Amin Fahim demanded an immediate convening of the National Assembly and provincial assemblies for transfer of power to the elected representatives without any further delay.

After the notification of the winning candidates by the Election Commission, there was no justification of delaying the sessions of the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies, PPP acting secretary-general, Mian Raza Rabbani, later told a press conference.

The party position about the constitutional amendments and the Legal Framework Order remained unchanged, Mr Rabbani added.

He said the meetings of Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who also heads the PPP’s electoral formation People’s Party Parliamentarians, with other political parties were of exploratory or an “ice- breaking” effort.

Mr Rabbani termed formation of a national government with the Pakistan Muslim League(Q) as a “distant illusion”, which he said could or could not materialize.

About talks with Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, he said, although the PPP had some ideological and fundamental differences with the religious alliance, there were some issues on which the two sides could develop a future cooperation.

He said supremacy of the parliament and constitutional amendments enacted by the military government were issues on which the PPP and MMA had unanimity of views.

Mr Rabbani denied reports of a possible disintegration of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD). “Our course and ARD course is the same,” he said.

The PPP, he said, would take along the ARD component parties.

He denied official claims that the constitutional amendments made by President Pervez Musharraf did not need a parliamentary ratification after their publication of the form of a booklet.

“No matter how many booklets are published by the government, legal position remained unchanged that all the constitutional amendments will have to be endorsed by the parliament,” he said.

On a question about Gen Musharraf’s continuation in the office of president, he said, this issue would also be taken up by the future parliament.

Mr Rabbani denied that the PPP was dying to form the future government but said being the country’s largest political party, it was its constitutional and moral right to try to form the government.

He said Makhdoom Amin Fahim was holding negotiations with other political parties with the mandate of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto. However, he said, all options, including sitting in the opposition or supporting any third party in the formation of a government, were open.

Mr Rabbani levelled fresh allegations of vote-rigging and said efforts to reduce the PPP strength in the provincial and national assemblies were still going on.

He said the PPP candidate for the Sindh provincial assembly from PS-11 Shikarpur III, Agha Tariq Khan, was declared successful with 17,574 votes in the consolidated results issued by the returning officer, but the Election Commission declared his opponent, Imtiaz Sheikh, who got 15,900 votes as the winner.

He said the returning officer had reminded the Election Commission on Tuesday through a fax message that Agha Tariq had secured the largest number of votes and he should be declared winner.