ISLAMABAD, April 13: Syed Khursheed Shah, senior leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), has said the government is suffering from Bhutto phobia and termed President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s announcement to bar Benazir Bhutto from participating in the forthcoming general election a desperate action.

In a statement, issued here on Saturday, he criticized Gen Musharraf for using his powers under the Provisional Constitutional Order to seek legitimacy for his rule and to malign PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto in public addresses.

Mr Shah said: “Neither the wearing of uniform, nor lining glittering medallions lends political courage nor does donning borrowed turban in public meetings bestow public legitimacy.”

There was only a single theme of the general in his speeches; namely not to allow Ms Bhutto to return to the country, he said, adding that “Musharraf’s boasts reminds us of another boastful general, who is known more for bringing in 1971’s lasting shame to the nation and the army.”

The PPP leader said Gen Musharraf could not distort history by accusing Ms Bhutto of ‘Kashmir sellout’. He said no other government had done so much for the cause of Kashmir as had been done by her government.

Pointing out the efforts of Ms Bhutto’s government to highlight the issue of Kashmir, he asked who had given international recognition to the All Parties Hurriyat Conference by persuading the OIC to address its summit in Casablanca in 1995. He also asked the President as to who had established the Parliament’s Kashmir Committee and who had asked the OIC to make a special Contact Group of Kashmir.

“It is General Musharraf, who has been vacillating and inconsistent on Kashmir and exploited the Kashmiris blood only for furthering his own political ambitions,” he claimed.

“When the dictate of his personal political ambition so demanded, he brandished the so-called jihad and declared on Feb 5, 2000 that the Afghan jihad had shifted to Kashmir. But when the dictates of his personal political ambitions changed, he declared on January 12, 2002 that the volunteers of religious parties in Kashmir were engaged not in jihad but in Fasad (mischief).”—PPI