PESHAWAR, July 6: Pakistan People’s Party has said that it will be a “great tragedy” if the rulers pressed ahead with their proposed constitutional amendment package.

Speaking at a meeting of the party’s district organization here at the Gor Gathri compound on Friday night, PPP’s acting Secretary-General Raza Rabbani warned that the constitutional package put forth by the National Reconstruction Bureau would open up a Pandora’s box.

On the occasion, the party workers expressed confidence by raising hands in the leadership of Chairperson Benazir Bhutto and provincial PPP chief Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti.

Mr Rabbani said it was the exclusive right of parliament to make any changes into the Constitution. If included in the Constitution the NRB-proposed amendments would replacethe parliamentary system with the presidential dictatorship, he added.

Mr Rabbani said that the Constitution was being destroyed to bring the King’s party to power but, he expressed the confidence, people would never let the rulers to bulldoze the Constitution and democratic institutions.

He said that after ousting the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Gen Pervez Musharraf had promised that he would eliminate violence, lawlessness, price-hike and uncertainty among provinces, but he failed to keep his words.

The entire nation, he added, was groaning under the price-hike and lawlessness and violence had left it in a state of fear.

Provincial PPP chief Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti said the rulers had become allergic to the genuine political forces and people’s power, hence they were producing political “test-tube babies” to keep the nation under their sway.

He said the constitutional package would pave the way for the “burger class” to play with the destiny of the country.

Naseerullah Khan Babar, a former interior minister, said the days of corrupt people were numbered and added that the PPP would bring all the corrupt to justice. He criticized former president Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari and former chief minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao for betraying the PPP.

Khursheed Advocate said that Peshawar would be freed from the clutches of the businessmen-turned-politicians, who were amassing huge wealth illegally.

The meeting adopted many resolutions, demanded a check on price-hike, and condemned terrorism.

A former president of the NWFP PPP, Barrister Masood Kausar, Qamar Abbas, Najmuddin Khan, Iftikhar Jhagra, Israr Khan, Ayub Shah and Zulfiqar Afghani also spoke.