KARACHI, Dec 4: A provincial leader of the Pakistan People’s Party on Monday urged the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal to review its decision of resigning from the national assembly and prepare for the elections to be held next year to ensure the supremacy of parliament and to strengthen democratic institutions.

Secretary General of the PPP, Sindh, Nafees Siddiqui in a statement expressed the view that MMA resignations would create a crisis that would provide an opportunity to the military-led regime to postpone elections.

Mr Siddiqui said parliament was not playing its role while political and economic crisis generated by the military regime was threatening the very foundation of the country.

He stressed that opposition parties, which were united on one point i.e. to banish the military regime and intervention for ever, must ensure that free, fair, and transparent elections were held next year to ensure the supremacy of parliament and the constitution. In this context he referred to the understanding between the ARD and other opposition parties.

Referring to the war of words between the PML-Qand Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Mr Siddiqui said that the stand taken by the MQM on Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s actions vis-à-vis the law pertaining to women had exposed the crisis within the regime which was a “coalition of the unwilling”.

Mr Siddiqui also called for a thorough review of Pakistan’s foreign policy which, he said, “should be based on ground realities and we should take a lead from our Chinese friends.”

Talking about India-Pakistan relations, he said Kashmir was the main dispute between two countries but that should not obstruct promotion of trade, economic and other relations until the two countries overcame their historical problem. In this context, he called for following China’s policy vis-à-vis Taiwan, which had not obstructed promotion of bilateral trade and economic ties.

Mr Siddiqui dismissed reports about any deal and maintained that such tactics had always been used by the rulers to damage the PPP but had failed to succeed because the party was firmly committed to the rights of the downtrodden and to equal opportunities for all.

The PPP leader said the PPP would come to power if free and fair elections were held by the government but suspected that the military ruler would try to pull a fast one on the opposition parties. .

Meanwhile provincial information secretary of the party Dr Fahmida Mirza, MNA, said that a caretaker government was vital for holding fair and impartial elections and restoring the shattered confidence of people in the ballot.

She said the PPP had always remained unchanged on the issues of the controversial water projects and now was opposing the sale of islands and disposal of lands to non-locals.