June 04, 2007	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 18, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 3: The Pakistan People’s Party on Sunday called for free and fair elections under a neutral caretaker set up and warned that rigging in the coming elections would put the existence of the country in jeopardy.

Speaking at a press conference, PPP secretary-general Raja Pervez Ashraf said that former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto should be allowed to comeback to Pakistan to lead their respective parties before the polls.

He said the days of President General Pervez Musharraf were numbered and he had resorted to involve the army in politics as a last ditch effort to tighten his losing grip on power.

“Armed forces have come under criticism for their involvement in politics and uniformed generals running the civil institutions. Instead of taking on path to confrontation, the army should hold free and fair elections under the caretaker govt of national consensus and return back to barracks,” he said.

He said that every institution should remain within its prescribed role and limitations and every institution trespassing its defined limits should get ready for criticism be it army or any other institutions, he said responding to a press release issued by the ISPR after the Corps Commanders meeting on Friday.

He said the PPP agreed to the Corps Commanders’ view that a minority should not be allowed to obstruct the majority. “But the only way to gauge the majority was to hold free and fair elections under neutral caretaker set up of national consensus,” he added.