03 October 2004	Sunday	17 Shaban 1425

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

LAHORE, Oct 2: The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy has welcomed the appointment of the new joint chiefs of staff committee and vice chief of army staff.

Talking to reporters here on Saturday, alliance's deputy information secretary Munir Ahmad Khan however demanded that Gen Pervez Musharraf should have resigned as army chief with the new appointments.

"Gen Musharraf had extended his tenure as army chief as well as of outgoing JCSC Gen Muhammad Aziz and VCOAS Gen Muhammad Yousaf. So he must have gone along with the two others," he argued.

He believed that even victory of US President Bush in the November election would be of no help to Gen Musharraf because the former would have a changed set of priorities after his re-election. The new priorities, to be set on the basis of ground realities, would make Bush support democracy, he added.

Answering a question, Mr Khan said the ARD was not ready to strike any deal on the uniform issue. He told a questioner that it was the duty of the religious alliance, MMA, to atone for its sin of extending support for giving legal cover to Gen Musharraf's 'illegal' and 'unconstitutional' steps through the 17th amendment.

He said the ARD would abolish the amendment through proper democratic process when it would have enough strength in parliament to do so.

Meanwhile, a summit meeting of the ARD will be held in the city on Oct 10. PDP senior vice-president Nazrur Rehman will host the event to be chaired by Makhdoom Amin Fahim.