HYDERABAD, Sept 29: Present assemblies whose tenure is about to end have no moral ground to elect a president for next five years, said central leader of the PPP and deputy parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, Syed Khursheed Shah.

He said the PPP never gave walkover to anyone in any elections and that was the reason it nominated Makhdoom Amin Fahim to contest the presidential election. He made it clear that his party would not accept anyone as president in uniform.

He was speaking at an Iftar party hosted by the UC-3 Nazim Qasimabad, Yamin Soomro on Friday.

Since the inception of Pakistan, Army, bureaucracy and agencies had tried to block the way of peoples’ government he said and added right from 1977 to 2002, the Peoples Party had been intentionally kept out of power. He said the government was giving an impression as if assemblies were completing the tenure for the first time.

Shah said it was an attempt to hoodwink the people that only those assemblies will be able to complete their tenure which were elected during the regime of a man in uniform. He said many a country which had become independent at the time of creation of Pakistan had progressed due to democratic set-up. He said this was the reason that his party was striving for the restoration of democracy in the country.

Leader of the opposition in Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said the PPP had always taken decisions which were in the interest of people and added that it had always opposed dictatorship.

He said there were other parties which were talking about launching a movement against uniform although they had been enjoying power for last five years under uniform. He said the same people had provided protection to uniform.

Khuhro said the PPP right from the beginning had opposed uniform.

Later, speaking to reporters, Syed Khursheed Shah and Nisar Khuhro said the present crisis was a creation of the MMA as initially it had supported President in uniform.