PESHAWAR, June 23: The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) on Thursday demanded that the government should allow exiled leaders Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to return to the country and take part in next polls. The demand was made by ARD’s secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra at a ceremony held to mark joining of Hizbullah Khan, a senior politician from D.I. Khan, the PML-N, at the Peshawar Press Club.

PML-N’s provincial president Pir Sabir Shah, secretary Anwar Kamal, MPAs and other workers were also present on the occasion.

Mr Jhagra said the ARD would not accept next elections unless Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto were allowed to contest polls as party chiefs.

The ARD secretary-general said if the government was serious in holding fair, free and transparent elections in the country, it should first constitute an independent election commission and ensure restoration of the 1973 Constitution as it existed before October 12, 1999.