17 April 2004	Saturday	26 Safar 1425

LAHORE, April 16: Ms Benazir Bhutto's political secretary Naheed Khan believes that Gen Pervez Musharraf will not take off his uniform by the end of the year and will go for the dissolution of assemblies if opposition parties mount pressure on him to meet the requirements of the 17th constitutional amendment.

At a news conference at the party's Faisal Town secretariat on Friday, she alleged that statements asking the general to stay in uniform in the larger national interest were being made at the instance of the military ruler. She said the general was playing with the future of the country to brighten up his own.

Party leaders Altaf Husain Qureshi, Naveed Chaudhry, Abdul Qadir Shaheen, Munawwar Anjum and Ms Sajida Mir were also present. Ms Khan, who is also a member of the National Assembly, said the general had made a mockery of the parliamentary system by centralising all powers, reducing the prime minister to his personal staff officer.

Still more tragic, she said, was the fact that the prime minister was very proud of being conferred the status of the PSO, realizing little that it amounted to insulting the very system of which he was supposed to be the chief executive.

In response to a question, the PPP leader said the ARD parties had walked out of the house and desisted from presenting amendments to the National Security Council Bill as any act to the contrary would have amounted to legitimizing the NSC.

She said the NSC was an illegal entity which the ARD would scrap on returning to power. Ms Khan said the real PPP was the one led by Ms Benazir Bhutto and the PPP-Patriots could not lawfully get this nomenclature even through the Election Commission.