HARIPUR, April 21: Former provincial minister Yusuf Ayub Khan has termed Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto indispensable for democracy and said without their participation, the election process will remain incomplete.

Talking to newsmen in the premises of a court here the other day, he described the referendum as unconstitutional and a wrong step, and called upon President Pervez Musharraf to follow the constitutionally prescribed rules for getting himself elected as president instead of befooling the nation on one or the other pretexts.

He criticized the government functionaries for closing down educational institutions and taking the teachers and other government employees to the public meeting of the president in Abbottabad on April 15.

Replying to a question, Mr Khan criticized the condition of graduation for the contenders of the coming general election, saying that with the literacy rate of only 30 per cent, the condition was but a farce.