LAHORE, March 12: ARD Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim has said that President Gen Pervez Musharraf is being persuaded by Pakistan Muslim League to lead the ruling party after stepping down as army chief.

Talking to Dawn here on Friday, he alleged that legislators and Nazims of the opposition parties were being enticed into the ruling party to "make it a more attractive bait" for the general to accept.

The ARD leader said members of the opposition parties were being forced to switch loyalty and the exercise had exposed the present government's democratic system. The system was anything, but democratic, he said.

When it was pointed out that under the Constitution the president of the country being the symbol of national unity could not become head of a political party, the ARD chief said: "Where's the Constitution." Had the Constitution been adhered to, he said, a serving general would not have been sitting in the presidency.

He said the Constitution stood disfigured the day the Legal Framework Order was chipped in.

Mr Fahim distanced himself from a demand made by various alliance's leaders that fresh elections should be held under the supervision of a government of national consensus. "We'll make such a demand only after proper homework. We'll closely watch the political situation, analyse it and then make some demands."

Asked if it would be possible for the ARD to bring back their exiled leaders by the end of the current year, as being claimed by some of his colleagues, he said the alliance would give a schedule after proper homework. "We are committed to bringing back the exiled leaders, but we can't set a date right now."

Replying to a question, he said the PPP and the MMA legislators occupied the chambers of opposition leader and deputy opposition leader in the National Assembly's secretariat probably because the two had no offices where they could sit to perform their duties.

He said the government had been in power for more than a year, but the National Assembly speaker had failed to nominate an opposition leader. Perhaps, he said, the government was too weak to take a decision.