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

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ISLAMABAD, July 14: Pakistan People’s Party has rejected the contention of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain that the matter of uniform of Gen Musharraf is a settled issue and that there would be no further negotiations between the government and opposition on this issue.

In a statement issued here on Monday, the PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar said: “Let there be no doubt or mistake in the mind of anyone be it Chaudhry Shujaat or Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali or Gen Musharraf that no democratic party, let alone the PPP, can accept an army chief in uniform as the president of the country”.

He said the PPP would not accept Gen Musharraf as legitimate president who, it believed, “sneaked into presidency via a fraudulent referendum, which he himself later regretted,” the senator said.

“The PPP will not let the Constitution, the collective will of the people, be ridiculed by any one.

“To please his masters Chaudhry Shujaat may say whatever he likes and may dream about his fanciful thoughts as there is no bar on day dreaming. The PPP, however, reiterates that neither the uniform is a settled issue nor manner of carrying out amendments in the Constitution is a settled issue.

“There can be no negotiations if the government thinks that such fundamental issue are already settled and not open to negotiations. If what Chaudhry Shujaat has said through the official news agency is the position of the government then there will be no negotiations at all with the PPP.

“The PPP wishes to state that if the government bulldozed its way then not only the party but all the democratic forces will continue to deny legitimacy to general Musharraf’s presidency and the constitutional amendments enforced via the GHQ.

“The party has denied legitimacy to dictators in the past. It will deny legitimacy in the future as well,” he added.