LAHORE, March 11: Mian Shahbaz Sharif?s repeated calls for burying the hatchet and making a fresh beginning are addressed to political parties, not the present rulers, PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq said on Friday.

Talking to Dawn, Raja said various parties had committed mistakes in the past which had created resentment against one another, and it was to ?air brush? such bitterness that the exiled former chief minister was underlining the need for forgetting the unpleasant things.

?Such calls are certainly not addressed to the rulers as Mr Shahbaz Sharif has already made it clear that talks with the rulers will never be held without approval of Mian Nawaz Sharif?, Raja said.

Implying that there was no possibility of talks between the government and the PML-N, Raja said the exiled former prime minister had already said that talks with the present setup would amount to committing political suicide.

Asked how would he elaborate the PML-N?s policy when the former chief minister had given an eight-point formula for reconciliation and Mian Nawaz Sharif had distanced himself from the same, the party chairman said the former prime minister and the party were the real policy-makers. According to him, there was just no difference of opinion between Mian Nawaz and Mian Shahbaz on policy matters.

Raja alleged that it was the government?s propaganda that Mian Shahbaz Sharif was in favour of reconciliation and that the rulers had a soft corner for him. But, he said, the government failed to convince the people. He said the government?s ?soft corner? for the PML-N president was fully exposed when he was deported to Saudi Arabia immediately on his landing in Lahore on May 11 last year.

The PML-N leader said the government was trying to establish an indirect contact with Mian Shahbaz, but the latter was unable to make any agreement without the consent of his elder brother. ?If political parties are averse to talking to ?dictators?, how will they be able to restore ?undiluted democracy? they have been promising?, he was asked.

Raja said parties could honour their commitment by refusing to strike a deal with dictators and adhering to the ?charter of democracy?, discussed by Mian Nawaz Sharif, Ms Benazir Bhutto and the MMA leaders. All parties, he said, should undertake to restrict the role of the armed forces to the one mentioned in the Constitution. In response to a question, the PML-N chairman said the ARD and the MMA had agreed on the need for the restoration of democracy and restoring the Constitution in its pre-takeover form. As for the annulment of the 17th amendment, he said it would be done by following the constitutional procedure. Meanwhile, ARD President Javed Hashmi said on Friday political parties would have to choose between the army and democracy. Talking to journalists here, he said all political parties would have to join hands for the supremacy of democracy.