KOHAT, Dec 24: The senior vice-president of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Saranjam Khan, has said that the country and President Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf cannot co-exist and the general’s ouster is the ‘religious and national obligation’ of the masses.

He described the religious parties and PML-Q as a ‘bunch of hypocrites’ and accused their leadership of promoting the US agenda under the guidance of Gen (retd) Musharraf. He also criticised the Pakistan People’s Party for extending clandestine support to President Musharraf.

Addressing a public meeting here on Monday evening in connection with the election campaign of PML-N candidate Javed Ibrahim Paracha, he warned that the country would lose its sovereignty if the PML-Q came to power.

Criticising the MMA, he recalled that the PML-N had passed the Sharia bill in the National Assembly but it could not be approved in the Senate due to opposition from religious parties.

He blamed the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) for the law and order situation in the country and called Maulana Fazlur Rehman ‘an agent of Pervez Musharraf’.

He termed the MMA’s Sharia bill in the NWFP assembly ‘a drama’.

Javed Ibrahim Paracha claimed that the development works carried out during the government of former prime minister Main Nawaz Sharif had been unprecedented in the 60 years history of the country.

He said that Mr Sharif had provided jobs to people, constructed motorways and tested nuclear devices.

He asked people to vote for the PML-N if they wished to save the country and Islam.

He vowed to avenge the killing of innocent students of the Lal Masjid and tribesmen if they came to power.

Former PML-Q candidate Sheharyar Afridi regretted that arms and ammunition provided to the Pakistan Army for eliminating terrorists were in fact being used against Pukhtoons.