LONDON, Jan 7: Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party has not yet responded one way or the other to Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif’s proposal for holding an all parties conference (APC) some time next month in London.
Answering questions at a news briefing here on Sunday, a PML-N spokesman said that about 35 political parties, including almost all the nationalist and mainstream political parties and leaders of civil society like Justice (retd) Saiduzzaman Siddiqui, have expressed their support to the idea of the proposed APC.
“We are awaiting the response from the remaining parties, none has refused so far, and PML-N leader Ishaq Dar met Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto the other day in this connection.”
He refused to interpret the PPP’s silence so far over the proposal as an indication that the party has some reservations about attending such a gathering.
He said the APC was being called to discuss a five-point agenda which included: restoration of the 1973 Constitution as it stood on October 12, 1999; restoration of genuine democracy, supremacy of parliament and fair and elections under an interim government without President Gen Musharraf in the driving seat; establishment of an independent judiciary; setting up of an independent election commission and; removal of all restrictions imposed on political leaders to keep them out of the country and out of the polls.
He said the APC was being called in essence to take a final collective decision on whether or not to participate in the elections under Gen Musharraf.
He maintained that there was no contradiction between the proposed agenda of the APC and what Benazir Bhutto has said about participating in elections under Gen Musharraf, “She has made the offer conditional to Gen Musharraf not getting re-elected from the present assemblies.”
