PESHAWAR, April 19: The Pakistan People’s Party has emphasised the need for an independent caretaker government to hold free, fair and transparent elections in the country.

PPP’s provincial acting chief Syed Qamar Abbas made the demand at a press conference held here on Wednesday to welcome two Jamaat-i-Islami leaders to the party.

Niaz Mohammad, a JI nominee for the post of nazim of Town IV, and Fazl-i-Rabbi, a union council nazim, along with their supporters announced joining the PPP on the occasion and expressed confidence in the leadership of chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

Mr Abbas said the PPP would not accept any election under Gen Pervez Musharraf who, he added, had failed to steer the country out of political, social and economic crises.

He said the PPP would not allow the anti-democratic forces to rig the upcoming polls and install a ‘puppet and inept’ government.

He said successive military regimes had not only destroyed political parties, but abolished democratic norms and political culture in the country. He regretted that non-political elements were being given political task to malign politicians in the eyes of masses.

The PPP leader said that while in power his party had created thousands of jobs by setting up mega-projects in the public sector, but rulers were selling those projects at throwaway prices to their favourites. He alleged that the government was carrying out an anti-people agenda, posing a danger to the very existence of the country.