ISLAMABAD, May 10: The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) has criticized Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali for saying that there was no need to consult with Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif on talks with India.

In a press statement issued on Saturday, the PPP deputy secretary-general and Senator, Raza Rabbani, said that the PML-Q government should realize that the PPP and its leader had an important role to play in the consensus over India for being the largest political party at the federal level.

He added that Mr Jamali had said that governments of Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif had failed to resolve the Kashmir issue and therefore there was no need to consult them on talks with India.

In pursuance of such a logic, President Gen Pervez Musharraf should also excluded from the dialogue with New Delhi as Agra Summit was also a failure during his tenure, the PPP leader argued.

He said the prime minister had shown scant respect for the resolution passed by the NWFP Assembly calling upon the federal government to associate Benazir Bhutto with the peace process.

The PPP senator said that the government should remember that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had signed the Simla Accord in 1972, and Ms Bhutto was the first leader to set up any meaningful bilateral protocols with India in 1989 at the Saarc summit in Islamabad.

Mr Rabbani said the Saarc agreement in 1989 established the South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA) protocols, which were the basis of renewed trade and economic negotiations in the region.

He asked the PML-Q government that in the larger national interest it should review its policy on the issue.