ISLAMABAD, March 29: People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) MNA Aitzaz Ahsan has claimed that Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Ehsanul Haq and National Security Council (NSC) Secretary Tariq Aziz had recently contacted the party’s top leadership directly as well as indirectly but failed to secure a deal because of the latter’s pre-conditions of immediate general elections and supremacy of parliament.

“Both conditions put forward by the party seem unacceptable to the establishment so long President Musharraf is in uniform,” Aitzaz Ahsan said while talking to reporters at the Supreme Court building here on Tuesday. He was asked to comment on the reports of a deal between PPP and the establishment.

“Though PPP and the government are in contact, there is no likelihood of any deal, as the former is insisting on immediate mid-term elections and complete supremacy of parliament - the conditions not acceptable to President Musharraf,” he observed.

He said the clandestine contact process initiated a year ago was still on but this development should not be construed as striking a deal with the establishment.

Aitzaz told the reporters that Tariq Aziz personally met Benazir Bhutto a few months ago to secure a national consensus.

To a question, Aitzaz Ahsan conceded a rift in the parliamentary opposition and said ideologically PPP and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) were poles apart. Besides, MMA was also opposed to elections before 2007, he added.

About politicisation of religious issues like Hudood laws and religion column in the passport, he said though these issues had legal and religious significance, politically these had no importance. Instead of concentrating on service-oriented issues, the MMA is propagating non-issues, he said.

“Only Pakistani passport, out of 57 Muslim states, would have a religion column,” he observed, adding, “Even the Saudi passport has no religion column.”

About elections, he said, the future general elections would be held between the pro-establishment and the anti-establishment forces, while the Military Intelligence (MI) and the Inter- Services Intelligence (ISI) would continue to manipulate election results.

“Since 1970 there has been no free and fair election in Pakistan, as agencies always intervened to get the desired results,” he claimed.

Since there are 192 pro-Musharraf members in the present National Assembly, therefore, they would never appreciate any mid-term elections in the country, he observed.

Stressing the need for a close liaison between Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), he said the next general elections would have no validity or acceptance among the general public if leaders like Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif were not allowed to take part in the elections.