ISLAMABAD, Dec 15: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said that democracy has been fully restored in Pakistan and the elected government is exercising power at the centre and the provinces.

He was talking to an eight-member parliamentary delegation representing the UK chapter of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, which called on him here Monday.

The president held a detailed exchange of views with the parliamentarians on Pakistan-UK relations, Pakistan’s return to the Councils of the Commonwealth, the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and the fight against terrorism.

He said that with elected government’s exercising power at the centre and in the provinces for over a year and the local bodies enjoying unprecedented authority, democracy had been fully restored in Pakistan.

The president stated that while some issues were under discussion between the government and the opposition, there should be no doubt about the majority’s right to rule because that was the essence of democracy. Viewed in that perspective, linking Pakistan’s presence in the Council of the Commonwealth to matters under discussion between the majority and the minority in parliament amounted to taking sides in Pakistan’s internal political debate, he added.

On India-Pakistan relations, he emphasized that Pakistan stood for peaceful settlement of all outstanding issues, including Kashmir. In this regard, he expressed the hope that India would accept to enter into a comprehensive dialogue.—APP