HYDERABAD, June 27: Leaders of public opinion have criticized the powers that be over resignation of Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali as the prime minister and said those who support dictators are always shunted out at the will of the rulers.

In a joint statement issued here on Sunday, People's Party Parliamentarians office-bearers MPA Zahid Bhurgari, Mir Fateh Talpur, Amanullah Siyal, Aftab Ahmad Khanzada, Syed Fayaz Ali Shah and others said Mr Jamali had been forced to resign.

They said those who were supporting dictatorship should learn a lesson from the fate of Mr Jamali.

They said people were aware that united Pakistan Muslim League chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain or for that matter any one else would also be as powerless a prime minister as Mr Jamali was.

The PPP leaders said there was a need to strengthen institutions instead of strengthening the hands of dictators.

Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party chairman Dr Qadir Magsi, while speaking at a workers' meeting at the Taraqqi Pasand House, observed that the country would remain in the grip of crisis unless a true democracy was restored and provinces were given equal rights.

He said change of faces at provincial or federal level would not make any difference without bringing about changes in the political system. He said for all practical purposes, the 1973 Constitution had become redundant and the country was being run under the Legal Framework Order which was drafted for the benefit of one single individual.

Mr Magsi, who is also the president of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement, Sindh chapter, said the country should be run on the formula propounded by Ponam.

He said a new constituent assembly should be elected to draft a constitution in which equal rights to the federating units were guaranteed.

Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader Sahibzada Hifzur Rehman Shams also said change of the prime minister would not make a difference as Chaudary Shujaat would too follow dictates of President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

In a statement, he condemned the removal of Mr Jamali and said such changes were against the interests of the country.

In his statement, Communist Party of Pakistan secretary-general Imdad Qazi said the supreme and de facto power would remain in the hands of generals.