PESHAWAR, July 22: The Awami National Party (ANP) has demanded of the government to withdraw the draft constitutional amendments as all the major political parties have rejected them.

ANP central leader Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, speaking at a news conference here at the Peshawar Press Club on Monday, said only Parliament had the right to bring any change into the Constitution. Neither the Supreme Court nor any individual could change the basic spirit of the Constitution, he added.

He stated that the constitutional packages were aimed at doing away with the federal parliamentary system and replacing it with the unilateral form of government.”The ANP has never compromised with any ruler on the supremacy of the Constitution”, he told the newsmen.

Mr Bilour said Gen Pervez Musharraf wanted to grab such powers which were not being enjoyed even by the presidents of France, Germany and the United States. But, he added, the nation would not allow him to grab such draconian powers.

The ANP, he said, was going to organise a seminar her on July 28, on the packages, and claimed that leaders of all the major political parties would attend it. Only the National Awami Party of Pakistan (NAPP), an ANP splinter group, had not been invited to attend it because they supported the government, he added.

The ANP leader said the NWFP assembly, through a resolution, had replaced the name of NWFP with Pakhtoonkhawa.

“We are against all other names including Afghania, proposed by Ajmal Khattak, who has been a champion of Pakhtoonistan throughout out his life”, he added.

He said they would not abandon the name of Pakhtoonkhawa as it would be against the aspiration of Pakhtoons.

Mr Bilour said the NAPP had sided with Chaudhary Rehmat Elahi and ignored the teachings of Ahmed Shah Baba, who had coined Pakhtoonkhawa.

In reply to a question, he said they supported local bodies system as it was not against the supremacy of the Constitution and parliament.

“We are opposed to only all forms of dictatorship and will not allow any person to introduce the constitutional dictatorship”, he added.