ISLAMABAD, Nov 12: Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has said that Article 58(2)b will remain part of the Constitution ‘forever’. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he advised President Pervez Musharraf to leave his army post after taking oath as president for the next term.

He said that elections to be held under emergency would be more transparent and fair than ever and only those parties would boycott the polls which were finding themselves unable to field suitable candidates in all constituencies.

Criticising PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, he said she could never return to power as prime minister. The minister said that the PPP chief had returned to the country only after the promulgation of the National Reconciliation Ordinance.

He claimed that in the last meeting between Benazir and Gen Musharraf, the former had agreed that she was not to insist on withdrawal of cases, if the government amended the law to allow her to become prime minister for a third time. However, later it turned out that she was interested in only withdrawal of the cases because she did not insist on changing the law relating to the third prime minister term.

The ruling coalition, Sheikh Rashid said, had decided to enact the NRO on her demand which allowed her to return but did not accept the other demand.

About the possibility of PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif’s returning to the country before elections, the minister said he had lost the right to return after opting to live in a palace instead of in a prison.

He declined to draw a comparison between judges who had taken oath after the promulgation of PCO and those who had not. He said: “In my view, the present judges are under the PCO and those who have been relieved were also judges under the PCO.”