ISLAMABAD, Nov 30: A leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) has said that his party chief Nawaz Sharif has approved a ‘Charter of Democracy’ and the party is awaiting response from Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto. Talking to Dawn, senior PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said a four-member committee, constituted by Mr Sharif and Ms Bhutto to finalize the charter, had completed the job.

He said the committee had held four meetings and finalized the recommendations in the last meeting on August 27.

The PML-N leader said Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif during a meeting in Jeddah in February this year had agreed to sign a ‘Charter of Democracy’ to pave way for a joint struggle for restoration of sovereignty of parliament and supremacy of the constitution.

Mr Iqbal said the PPP had nominated Opposition Leader in the Senate Raza Rabbani and Senator Dr Safdar Abbasi and Mr Sharif had asked him (Iqbal) and Senator Ishaq Dar to represent the PML-N in the committee.

According to the charter, Mr Iqbal said, both the PPP and the PML-N would cooperate with each other in eliminating the 17th Constitutional Amendment to bring the constitution back to the state of October 12, 1999.

Similarly, he said, the two parties would ensure that unlike in the past, they would not establish any link with military leadership in future in an effort to topple each other’s government.

The PML-N leader said the two parties would also support each other on the amendment to the constitution regarding appointment of judges.

He said there was an agreement between PPP and PML-N leaderships that defence budget should also be brought before parliament.

When contacted, Senator Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Ms Bhutto, said after receiving the proposed charter, Mr Sharif and Ms Bhutto were supposed to send it back to their respective committee members with their remarks and suggestions for discussion.

Mr Babar said it would be pre-mature to comment on the nature of the agreement as the PPP had not been formally informed by the PML-N that Nawaz Sharif had approved the recommendations.

He said the PPP had not received any directive from Ms Bhutto on the issue.