LAHORE, May 5: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will not vote for Gen Pervez Musharraf to elect him civilian president of the country.

However, it will accept him as the constitutional head of the state if other parties elect him according to the procedure prescribed in the Constitution.

“The PPP will not vote for Gen Musharraf even if he complies with all constitutional conditions for contesting the presidential polls but will not oppose if other parties elect him to the post,” says Nafees Siddiqui, deputy coordinator of the PPP think-tank set up to study national issues and formulate party’s policies.

He told reporters here on Monday that Gen Musharraf’s challenge to political parties that could not bring masses on roads on the LFO issue amounted to provoking them and sabotaging the ongoing talks between the government and the opposition on the subject.

The government, he said, had accepted the opposition’s stance that the LFO was not a part of the Constitution by holding dialogue on it.

Mr Siddiqui lauded the role of the lawyers’ community and the opposition parties for forcing the government to come to the negotiation table on the issue.

The PPP would hold a national conference in Islamabad within the next two weeks to discuss the constitutional crisis as all political parties, lawyers, writers, editors, traders bodies and other segments of society would be invited to it to form a consensus opinion on it, he said.

Such moots would also be held in all four provincial capitals later.

The Pakistan-India relations could also be made a part of the conference agenda after consulting party’s chairperson Benazir Bhutto, he added.

Urging the need for improving relations with New Delhi, Siddiqui said both the neighbouring states enjoyed a better working relationship whenever there was a democratic setup in Pakistan. He stressed for introducing confidence-building measures, including revival of air, rail and road links, people-to-people contact, and bilateral trade, prior to holding talks on controversial issues like Kashmir problem so that the peace process could be successfully taken to its logical end.