01 December 2004	Wednesday	18 Shawwal 1425

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MANSEHRA, Nov 30: The former president of the PML-Q, Mian Mohammad Azhar, has said that the PPP and the PML-N were not political parties but were rather limited companies and their leaders were falsely claiming to be the leaders of major political parties.

He was speaking by telephone from Lahore to a local PML leader, Sheraz Mahmood Qurashi, here on Tuesday. He said that both the parties had no solid and viable manifesto and none of them were acting on principles and norms of politics.

He said that the politics of both the parties revolved around the families of their so-called leaders and they had no plans for the well-being of the masses. He said that leaders of both the parties claimed to be champions of democracy but it was an irony that there was no democratic spirit in any of the parties.

He said that people like Gen Pervez Musharaf would continue to rule the country unless political parties did not promote democratic spirit in their own ranks. "I firmly believe that to err is human and no one is perfect," said Mian Azhar, adding that he also had committed mistakes.

"I always urged Mian Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto, Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Altaf Hussain to shun the politics of hollow slogans and to put an end to their decades-old tradition of deceiving the masses," he said.

The veteran Muslim Leaguer said that feudalism was the root cause of all evils and the country could not progress unless the feudal culture was eliminated. Stressing the urgent need to get rid of the feudal system, Mian Azhar said that elections could never be fair and transparent without an independent election commission. He said that purging the country of corrupt elements was also a prerequisite for the holding of fair and transparent elections.