PESHAWAR, Oct 25: Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim has said the present parliament is incomplete as the office of the president needs to be filled through a fresh presidential election.

Briefing newsmen here at the residence of ARD secretary-general Zafar Iqbal Jhagra on Saturday, PPP chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim and ARD president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi said that a full parliamentary year had passed, but the office of the elected president was still empty.

He demanded of the government to hold elections for the president as prescribed in the 1973 Constitution.

Mr Fahim said the meeting had appointed Nawabzada Mansoor Khan as senior vice-president of the ARD. The meeting had declared the office of the late ARD chairman Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan the central secretariat of the alliance, he added.

The ARD, he said, had also decided to hold anti-government meetings at Quetta (Nov 22) and Abbottabad (Dec 8) respectively. The next meeting of the heads of the ARD component parties would be held on Nov 15 at the Lahore residence of the late Nawabzada, he added.

Mr Hashmi said the ARD would not accept COAS Gen Pervez Musharraf even for a single as president in the military uniform. Those who had given one-year time to Gen Musharraf to stay in uniform were not doing any service to the people or democracy, he observed.

He said the Legal Framework Order was not a part of the Constitution. Instead, he added, it represented a deliberate move to change the democratic spirit of it. The ARD would never allow the rulers to make the LFO part of the Constitution, he added.

He said the ARD was deadly opposed to the military operation in Southern Waziristan and considered it unlawful as it had not been permitted by the elected parliament.

The ARD president said the country was confronted with a national crisis which could not be resolved without the participation of the national leadership in the national affairs.

He demanded of the government to bring PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif back home for the resolution of the crisis.

The ARD had adopted a resolution against any move to send Pakistan troops to Iraq. Parliament should be taken into confidence on this crucial issue, he added.

He said the ARD would set up protest camps against price-hike, growing unemployment and the declining law and order situation during Ramazan across the country.

Replying to a question, he said that an illegally-installed president wouldn’t be allowed to address parliament. He also made it clear that the ARD component parties would stay away from any move against the MMA government in the NWFP.

PPP provincial chief Khwaja Khan Hoti, PML-N provincial chief Pir Sabir Shah, a former NWFP chief minister Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan, Pakistan Democratic Party chief Nawabzada Mansoor Ali Khan, PML-N secretary-general Saranjam Khan and ARD’s other leaders were also present on the occasion.

PPI adds: Mr Hashmi said that a public meeting of ARD would be held in Quetta on Nov 22 and another in Abbotabad on Dec 8.