HARIPUR, June 2: District president of the PPP (Sherpao) and several office-bearers and political workers on Friday announced joining the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians.

The announcement was made at a press conference held at the residence of Aurangzeb Mughal and addressed by PPP Senator Sajjad Bukhari.

Among those who rejoined the mainstream PPP included Pervez Akhtar Rana, district president of PPP (Sherpao), Maqbool Hussain, secretary, Syed Azam Shah, member of the party’s provincial council, Dr Aurangzeb, president of the People’s Youth (Sherpao), Hazara division, and Younus Jiala.

Senator Sajjad Bukhari said the charter of democracy was not a document for power-sharing but for restoration of democracy, holding of free and fair elections and peaceful transfer of power to the majority-wielding party.

The senator termed Pakistan’s current phase of political history critical and said that the two major national parties had vowed prepare the country to meet internal and external challenges.

“Deviation from this charter is not in favor of either of the parties,” he said.

He was accompanied by Syed Qamar Abbas, Azam Afridi, Mehrunnisa Afridi, Maqbool Hussain president of the District Bar Association, Haripur, and the party’s district organiser Sardar Abdul Rauf Khan.

To a question, Senator Bukhari termed cooperation between the two parties sustainable, saying that they had set aside their ideological differences and joined hands to remove military dictatorship and restoration of democracy.

Rejecting the impression that PPP had struck a deal with the Musharraf government, he termed such statements part of the government’s disinformation campaign aimed at harming the charter of democracy.

He said that a three-month membership drive had begun all over the country. He said that in the second phase, elections would be held right from the union council level to the provincial level.