HYDERABAD, Jan 20: The chief of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, has criticized the increase in the seats reserved for women in the National Assembly and the condition of being graduate for contesting elections.

While speaking at a meet the press programme held at the press club here on Sunday, he said that even in the most developed countries of the world such as UK, America, France and even India, no seats for women were reserved in assemblies.

He claimed that no genuine candidate from women was elected from the rural areas of Pakistan in the local bodies elections. The women candidates were always nominated by the political parties, he added.

The ARD chief also opposed the condition that the members of legislative assemblies should be graduates. He said that the political parties alone were the best judges for selecting the candidates on the basis of their services to the people.

He said that it was wrong to assume that democracy in Pakistan had not gained roots. The fact was that the sapling of democracy was never allowed to take roots and it was uprooted before flourishing, he added.

He said that from Ayub Khan to Pervez Musharraf, none of the military rulers ever believed in the sanctity and importance of the constitution.

He pointed out that India had framed its constitution without any delay and elections had strengthened the democratic institutions there. Contrary to this, he said, the first constitution of Pakistan, was framed after eleven years of its creation and no elections were held during that period.

Nawabzada recalled that in the 1965 war no harm came to Pakistan because the nation was united but when the nation was divided in 1971, the armed forces even could not defend themselves and 90,000 army jawans and officers became prisoners of war.

He said that right from the days of Awami Ittehad, GDA and now the ARD, the alliances had pledged to uphold the supremacy of the 1973 constitution.

Mr Nawabzada was of the opinion that Gen Pervez Musharraf had no right to bring about any amendment in the 1973 constitution adding that when the Supreme Court itself had no powers to amend the constitution, it could not confer such powers on Pervez Musharraf.

He said that Gen Musharraf had violated the constitution by taking over the reins of the government, by declaring himself as the chief executive, by appointing the national security council and by elevating himself to the post of president.

He said that Musharraf had also announced his intention to remain president even after the elections and also declared himself the chief of the army staff for an indefinite period.

He said the ARD had always demanded that the accountability of the corrupt people should be fair. He, however, said that in fact only those people were being victimized who did not agree with the rulers and a propaganda had been unleashed against them on the electronic media.

About the foreign policy, he said that it was an utter failure and added that Pakistan was isolated to such an extent that it even could not convene the meeting of the OIC.

Answering a question about Kashmir, he said the present policy of the government on Kashmir was also failure.

The demands of India were being accepted one after the other without any resistance, he regretted.

About the internal situation, Nawabzada said that the people were disappointment and added that political parties alone could inspire the people to stand behind the armed forces. The irony was that some of the political leaders were forced to live in exile, others were languishing in jail and still others were not allowed to contact the people to mobilize them, he added.

Answering a question, he said that if the political parties commit mistakes, they accept them and rectify them. However, the dictators never accept their mistakes, he added.

About the election commission, Nawabzada said that the ARD had always demanded that an autonomous and independent election commission should be appointed, interim governments should be appointed in the provinces with the consensus of the parties and elections should be held under their supervision to make the election process credible and acceptable to the people.