November 17, 2002	Sunday	Ramazan 11, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 16: The revival of the Constitution on Saturday by President Gen Pervez Musharraf while keeping the article dealing with floor crossing in abeyance is a shameful invitation to the politicians to change loyalties, acting secretary-general of Pakistan People’s Party, Mian Raza Rabbani, has said.

In a statement, he said it was a bid to encourage horse-trading and further break major political parties to aid the king’s party.

He said: “The regime has been condemning from day one the politicians, accusing them of horse-trading and unscrupulousness. Gen Musharraf had vowed in his first address to end the scourge of horse-trading from national politics.

“But today on the eve of so called revival of democracy it has suspended the operation of that very constitutional provision which the political parties had embedded in the Constitution to bring to an end the curse of horse-trading and changing loyalties.

“Obviously this has been done so as to further break the mainstream political parties and aid the king’s party. It has been done as the regime is still not certain that it can get away with its agenda despite massive pre-poll, polls day and post-poll rigging.

“There cannot be a greater example of double speak of the regime than this. There also cannot be a more convincing evidence of the regime putting up pliant and compromising king’s party as a facade for the pursuit of their undemocratic agenda.

“The PPP condemns the formalization of horse-trading by the regime as amounting to robbing the people of their mandate. The PPP warns that manipulating power transfer through horse-trading will spell disaster for the federation.

“The PPP demands the immediate revival of this and other suspended provisions of the Constitution and a firm and unambiguous end to horse-trading.

“The day of so-called revival of democracy has unfortunately been turned into a day of shame by the dictators. It is a day on which the heads not only of those who engineered it but also of those who seek to derive personal benefits from this unethical engineering must hang in shame.

“It is a day of mourning for the whole nation, which has been hijacked by a bunch of pirates chanting hurrah. It is a day on which shedding of tears by all those who uphold democracy and principled politics is no shame.

“It is also a day on which the democratic forces, the legal fraternity, the human rights bodies and members of enlightened public opinion must raise their voice. They all must join hands to defeat the dictatorial and unscrupulous agenda of the rulers,” he said.