ISLAMABAD, April 17: Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim has urged the European Parliament not to extend legitimacy to what he said the quasi- military dictatorship in Pakistan and refuse to endorse the economic cooperation agreement with the country till restoration of genuine democracy and supremacy of parliament.

The foreign affairs committee of the European Parliament last week recommended, by a narrow vote of 15 to 14, the ratification of the agreement with Pakistan. The plenary session of the parliament will consider the recommendation next week.

However, the committee also adopted a unanimous resolution condemning the record of human rights and democracy in Pakistan.

In a statement on Saturday, Mr Fahim said opposition in Pakistan believed that the third Generation Cooperation Agreement, which is due to be discussed by the European Parliament next week, did not have any direct financial implications. However, its ratification by the EU parliament would lend international endorsement to Gen Pervez Musharraf and lift the pressure on him to restore genuine democracy in the country, he said.

"It would be a major mistake and inconsistent with the European Union's commitment to democracy and human rights if it accorded political legitimacy to the sham democratic system in Pakistan," said the ARD chairman.

He reminded the EU that respect for human rights and democratic principles as laid down in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights underpinned the domestic and international policies of the European Community and constituted an essential element of the agreement.

Mr Fahim pointed out that article 1 of the third Trade and Cooperation Agreement required that Pakistan respected the Constitution, removed obstacles in the restoration of full democracy and transferred power to civil society. As none of it happened so far, he added, the ratification of the agreement would only make the realization of these democratic objectives even more distant.

The formalization this week of the role of military in national politics, the rewriting of the civil-military equation on the terms of the military, the banishing into exile of genuine political leadership, the nearly quarter of a century jail sentence handed down to the ARD president and the continuation of the army chief as the president are some of the elements which expose Pakistan's military rulers' so-called sustainable democracy", he maintained.