June 08, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 03, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 7: Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League-N on Saturday rejected President Pervez Musharraf’s reasons for sticking to the presidency.

Reacting to the president’s warning that he would ‘react’ if the parliament moved to curb his powers, the PPP said it amounted to “contempt of parliament and the Constitution”.

According to a statement issued by the party’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar, the parliament, which represented the people’s will and was sovereign, could amend the Constitution whether President Musharraf liked it or not.

“Such … warnings would not deter democratic forces from restoring the parliament’s powers,” he said, adding the PPP’s constitutional package was aimed at restoring the balance of powers between the presidency and parliament.“The party also rejects the claim that the judges had not been dismissed but that they did not take oath under the PCO. It is a most self-serving distortion of facts.”

The PPP spokesperson said: “To assert that the judges ceased to be judges because they did not take oath of allegiance to Musharraf is a mockery of the judiciary and the Constitution.

“Musharraf’s claim that he is a democrat and … promoted democracy in the country … is one of the cruellest jokes of the 21st Century … (he) will be remembered as the man … who demolished the Constitution, the judiciary and parliament.”

Meanwhile, PML-N’s secretary information Ahsan Iqbal said that President Musharraf’s entire speech was based on self-deception and it appeared that he was unwilling to accept that Pakistani people had rejected his policies on Feb 18.

Mr Iqbal told Dawn that if the PML-N had the required numbers in parliament, it would have impeached President Musharraf and reinstated the deposed judges within 24 hours of its first parliamentary session.

He said: “We are constantly urging our coalition partners to make an early move to oust Musharraf whose presence … is a disaster for the democratic order.”

He dismissed Musharraf’s claim that he had allowed Sharif brothers to return home, and said that the Saudi authorities had declined his request to keep the PML-N leaders in exile.