09 September 2004	Thursday	23 Rajab 1425

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FAISALABAD, Sept 8: PPP (Shaheed Bhutto) chairperson Ghinwa Bhutto has said army uniform of the president was no issue but "the problem is the man in the uniform who is not acceptable to the democratic forces."

She said at a District Bar Association, Faisalabad, here on Wednesday Pakistan had been passing through a critical juncture and the rulers were adopting anti-nation policies just to prolong their rule.

She said the nation had great respect for the armed forces but they were allergic to the people like Gen Ziaul Haq and Gen Pervez Musharraf who usurped the powers of people and destroyed the democratic institutions for lust of power.

Ms Bhutto said the rulers in uniform had always destabilized democracy so that they could justify their entering into the corridors of power. "We were asked to come into power through the help of army but the Bhuttos would not bow at any cost and would not strike deals with the anti-democratic powers," she claimed.

Ms Bhutto said the selection of Shaukat Aziz was a stigma on the face of self-styled champions of democracy. Rejecting the claim of President Gen Musharraf about having support of 96 per cent population of the country, she said if he had such a huge power behind him why he bowed down before the US president on a single call over the issue of Afghanistan.

She claimed that some 'secret hands' had staged the drama of hijacking and implicated her husband Murtaza Bhutto and his 40 companions in the scandal to achieve their ulterior motives but the courts acquitted all of them.

Gen Zia also fell victim to the 'secret hands'. There was no clue to the killers of Gen Zia and Murtaza Bhutto which was a proof that the secret hands were so powerful in the country, she added. She demanded the president to order reinvestigation of plane hijacking case in which Murtaza Bhutto was implicated so that real culprits could be taken to task.