QUETTA, May 16: The General-Secretary of Sindh PPP, Mr Nafees Siddiqui, has said the ARD is not launching any struggle with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal for restoring democracy in view of what the PPP leader alleges to be MMA’s anti-democratic role in the country.

Talking to newsmen here on Sunday night, he said his party had serious reservations over the role the MMA had played ‘in the imposition of a general as the president of Pakistan’.

Mr Siddiqui told a questioner that there had been no agreement on the issue of the MMA joining any movement for restoration of democracy in future.

He criticized the convening of a meeting of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League by President General Pervez Musharraf, saying that the president had been interfering openly in internal politics of a political party.

This action by the president was illegal, unlawful and against the constitution as he could not keep a party intact ‘through political interference in the PML’, the PPP leader said.

The general-secretary of Sindh PPP claimed that the PML had been on the verge of collapse.

He alleged that the government had been formed by dividing political parties, using NAB cases and through the gathering of forged-degree holders.

Mr Siddiqui condemned arrest of political workers and torture in custody, claiming that it had been done on the orders of the rulers.

He demanded release of all political prisoners and withdrawal of cases against them.

He claimed that the government had been trying to find a pretext to postpone the local bodies elections.

The PPP leader, however, predicted that 2005 would be the year of general elections as the rulers could not delay it because political developments were going against the government as well as against the ruling party.