March 12, 2003	Wednesday	Muharram 8, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 11: The Pakistan People’s Party described Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali’s address to the nation on Tuesday as disappointing, saying it was nothing more than a “regurgitation of pious hopes and vague promises”.

A PPP spokesman said the speech was full of exhortations and lamentations but lacking in policy decisions.

The speech was a wasted hour of national life, he alleged. “Mir Zafarullah Jamali’s assertion that parliament is sovereign and all decisions will be taken by it is by far a cruelest joke,” he said.

The prime minister claimed that his government would give provinces their rights as guaranteed in the Constitution. How could the government uphold those rights when, under the LFO, provinces did not even have the freedom to make laws for local bodies without approval of the president? he asked.

The PPP spokesman claimed that the prime minister sounded hollow when he praised his “patron” General Musharraf and sermonized opposition parties on the ethics of democratic and parliamentary politics.

Like administrations condemned to work in the shadow of military dictators, Mr Jamali could only speak of reforming the curricula and stressed ideological orientation without addressing the basic and fundamental issues of governance, he said.

The PPP spokesman said the prime minister promised that political opposition would no longer be a basis for institution of cases against opponents.

If he means what he says, the prime minister should first withdraw politically motivated cases against all political leaders and then make a promise about the future, he suggested.