ISLAMABAD, May 3: Former prime minister and Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto said on Thursday that the five percent turnout on April 30 exposed the farce of referendum and the claims of unrepresentative persons that the people wanted them to govern.

In a statement, the former prime minister criticized the government claim of over 70 per cent turnout.

“I salute the people of Pakistan for rejecting relabelling of military dictatorship through successful boycott,” she said and added that the people showed courage and wisdom by refusing to participate in a farce funded with money meant for poverty alleviation.

Ms Bhutto welcomed the boycott of the referendum by the people as a rejection of the military regime which, she said, consequently lost moral and legal basis to remain in office any longer.

She said that the rejected regime must resign and hand over power under the Provisional Constitutional Order by accepting the verdict of the people. If the regime refused to do so, it would expose itself as a military dictatorship continuing against the will of the people, like others who brought ruin to their nations out of greed for power.

The former premier said that massive propaganda funded by money meant for the poor people of the country was done to stage festivals. However, they failed to deliver the results and were, in fact, corrupt acts by rulers exploiting their offices for self promotion, she said. She said this was a crime under the accountability laws but in Pakistan,”all laws were trampled to deny the justice.”

She called upon the people to unite against the injustice and tyranny of “an unelected coterie which had brought misery to the people of the country by increasing unemployment and inflation.”

Ms Bhutto said that the manner in which the regime was handling the referendum showed that it was planning a bogus vote for the elections in October.

She said that unless the regime was stopped from rigging the elections and undermining the Constitution, the rule of law would be undermined and political stability sacrificed.

The consequence of a lawless regime was more lawlessness which was seen in the recent violence in Karachi and earlier during the grenade attack in Lahore and the attack on the Islamabad church and Rawalpindi mosque, she said.