04 January 2005	Tuesday	22 Ziqa'ad 1425

KHAIRPUR, Jan 3: The alliance for Restoration of Democracy leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim has said that neither the ARD nor the People's Party Parliamentarians is holding talks with the government and rumours about such talks are aimed at damaging the ARD movement.

He was talking to newsmen at a reception hosted by PPP leader Syed Qaim Ali Shah at the circuit house here on Sunday evening. Mr Fahim said that he was confident that Asif Ali Zardari and Benazir Bhutto would be back in Pakistan to serve people.

He said that the army uniform and democracy were two separate things and they could not go hand in hand and added that thinking about a real democracy would remain a dream until the restoration of the 1973 Constitution.

The ARD leader said that the country had been founded by people and there must be a government of people and generals should perform their duties as inscribed in the Constitution.

He categorically denied that any dialogue was going on between the PPP and the government and said that any deal, secret or open, was not going to be stricken. He said that the PPP always came in power with people's support and would be in power again with people's vote.

Answering a question, he said that the component parties of the ARD, including the PPP, had resolved not to repeat mistakes committed in the past. Referring to the Kalabagh dam, he said that three provincial assemblies had rejected the project.

Tehmina Doultana, Mohammad Iqbal Jhagra, Nafisa Shah and others attended the reception.