ISLAMABAD, June 15: The Pakistan People’s Party has denounced the National Assembly Speaker’s ruling on the LFO, and vowed to continue fight for the restoration of the Constitution.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said that the party had denounced the ruling by NA Speaker Choudhry Amir Hussain that the LFO was part of the Constitution, as a last-ditch desperate bid by a nervous regime to lend some facade of legitimacy to Gen Musharraf, and the new constitutional structure imposed by him from above, on the eve of his visit to the US.

“No matter what the regime does, legitimacy will continue to elude Gen Musharraf, his fraudulent referendum, massively rigged elections and the superimposed Constitutional structure,” the PPP spokesman said.

By giving the ruling the Speaker has also become a party to the LFO controversy. He has thus lost all moral authority to call himself the guardian and custodian of the elected house, Mr Babar maintained.

He said that no constitutional amendment will be acceptable unless it was placed before parliament. The PPP has been fighting, and will continue to fight, against foisting of a new constitutional structure by a military dictator, he said.

“The PPP does not want the winding up of the system. But it is also not deterred by the threats hurled by some that not accepting the LFO as part of the Constitution could result in the winding up of the system.

“If non-acceptance of the LFO a part of the Constitution results in the winding up, so be it.

“Neither the invitation extracted by Gen Musharraf from some lawyers in Lahore to address, nor the finding of the LHC validating a general in uniform as President nor the speaker‘s ruling on the LFO will lend any legitimacy to General Musharraf on the eve of his forthcoming meeting with President Bush.”