July 15, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 14, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 14: Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) acting chief Makhdoom Javed Hashmi has said Gen Pervez Musharraf is not acceptable to the party as a president with or without uniform.

Talking to Dawn on Monday, Mr Hashmi said that he conveyed his party’s decision to Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Sunday.

Rejecting MMA’s proposal of giving one year time to President Gen Pervez Musharraf to remove his uniform, he said: “The PML-N will not accept Gen Musharraf as the country’s president with or without uniform even for few minutes, what to talk about a year.”

Mr Hashmi said the party had been consistent on its stand from the day one that Gen Musharraf was an “usurper” and had no right to rule the country. He said the PML-N had already rejected all the amendments made in the Constitution after October 12, 1999.

The PML-N acting chief welcomed the gesture of the prime minister of visiting the opposition leaders individually and hoped that he would have to call a meeting of party heads.

He said Mr Jamali should call heads of all those parties which had representation in the 11-member committee constituted to prepare recommendations on the LFO. Talks should begin on the basis of recommendations submitted by the committee to the prime minister in May, he added.

He claimed that despite all efforts by the Musharraf regime to crush the PML-N, the party had the largest vote bank in the country.

He said only those people had joined the PML-Q who either had the desire to be in power or had some corruption charges against them and could not succumb to government’s pressure.