KARACHI, June 6: A central leader of the PPP, Nafis Siddiqui, has demanded holding of fresh general elections in the country in order to overcome the present political crisis.

Expressing his confidence that the elections would have to be held soon, he demanded that the former premiers Ms Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif also be allowed to take part in the polls which should be held under the supervision of a neutral body like the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

"We do not accept the present election commission," he declared while talking to newsmen here on Sunday. He claimed that the government had failed to establish its writ, and in this context referred to the violence in Karachi, unchecked price hike and unemployment which, he said, had made lives of citizens across the country miserable.

Mr Siddiqui said PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had called on Makhdoom Amin Fahim, leader of the PPP, at the National Assembly recently and, according to him, had proposed formation of a government of national consensus in Sindh. -PPI