HYDERABAD, May 8: Sindh People’s Party Parliamentarians president Nisar Ahmad Khuhro has said parliament will lose its supremacy if the “supra constitutional” National Security Council is thrust on the country.

He was speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Thursday.

He regretted that 29 articles of the Constitution had been amended arbitrarily and unilaterally by President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Mr Khuhro said although members of provincial and national assemblies had taken oath under the 1973 Constitution but they were now functioning under the Legal Framework Order.

About the crisis of leadership in the country, he said nowhere in the Constitution it was provided that leaders living abroad could not contest elections but the government had disallowed PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto to take part in the last election.

He said the defection clause of the Constitution was included in the Election Order, 2002, but the rulers had not implemented it.

He said affairs of the state were being run through extra constitutional measures.

The leader of opposition in the Sindh Assembly alleged there was a rubber stamp government in the country and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali was being dictated by the president.

He said under the Constitution, a serving army officer could not become president.

He accused the rulers of laying the basis of a unitary form of government in the country.

Mr Khuhro said lawmakers were living in fear that assemblies could be dissolved any time.

The PPP leader said institutions of the country had been rendered powerless and ineffective.

He said the government had failed to provide any relief to the masses and at international level the country had become isolated.

Briefing the newsmen about the convention of office-bearers of the party held in Bhanote on Wednesday night, Mr Khuhro said workers had been asked to prepare themselves for a long struggle to restore true democracy.

He said the party leadership would visit the 21 districts of the province and prepare the workers for the struggle.

He said the fight for restoring true democracy and supremacy of the Constitution would also continue on the floor of assemblies.

He said the PPP workers had reaffirmed their confidence in the party leadership.

The PPP leader leashed out at the Sindh government for accepting the unjust distribution of water and strongly opposed the old formula for the NFC Award.

Former Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah said a president could only be elected at through parliament and not through a referendum.