ISLAMABAD, June 23: The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) has condemned the government for carrying out “political victimization” of the party leaders and parliamentarians and ruled out any possibility of striking a deal with the regime. “The PPP cannot even think of striking a deal with the present unconstitutional, undemocratic and illegal regime,” said PPP Secretary-General Raja Pervez Ashraf at a news conference held at the party’s media centre here on Thursday. PPP MPA from Punjab Farzana Raja and party activist Nazir Dhoki were also present on the occasion.

Raja Pervez Ashraf said despite all tactics of the government, the PPP would not give up its struggle for the restoration of democracy and supremacy of the parliament.

Speaking on the occasion, Farzana Raja said she had been receiving life threats. She said the police forcibly shifted her husband Pir Mukarram Shah from the hospital to Adiala Jail on Thursday morning on the directives of Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and provincial law minister Raja Basharat.

Ms Raja said if any harm was caused to her or her husband, the Punjab chief minister and the law minister would be responsible for it.

PPP President Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who was originally scheduled to hold the press conference, could not reach the venue, and spoke to mediapersons on telephone. He, too, condemned the Punjab government for its policies of “political victimization” and said the rulers should keep in mind that time and tide wait for none.

Meanwhile, PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar, in a statement, said there were no fresh contacts between the PPP and the regime after talks halted when the regime made an abortive attempt to remove Benazir Bhutto from the party’s leadership.

Commenting on press reports that the regime had made some fresh proposals to the PPP, he said there had been no contacts with the regime after the PPP refused to accept any other person as the party head in place of Benazir Bhutto. He said the PPP had also rejected the regime’s proposal that Ms Bhutto should not return to the country even after the next general elections and that the party should accept the 17th Constitutional Amendment.

“It is ridiculous to suggest that under conditions of siege imposed on the party, some fresh proposals have been made,” he said.

He said the regime’s lawyers in Geneva were insisting that Asif Zardari personally appeared before the investigators next month, knowing that the doctors had advised him complete rest, and that travel and stress could endanger his life.

“The manner in which MPA form Sindh Zahid Bhurgary was arrested and handcuffed and other PPP parliamentarians are being harassed is in the public knowledge,” he said.