ISLAMABAD, April 18 The chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-Zia (PML-Z), Ijazul Haq, has challenged the detractors of Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf to “show courage” and take the former dictator to court under the amended Article 6 of the Constitution.

When it was suggested that he too could be hauled up in court for being a supporter of Gen Musharraf, the son of Gen Ziaul Haq said “Leave the outgoing president... they cannot even try a brigadier for his deeds.”

Talking to Dawn, he rejected the government claim that after the amendment to Article 6 the door to dictatorship had been shut once and for all. He recalled that the 13th Amendment had been brought with similar claims but the army had taken over within the next 12 months.

Commenting on the United Nations report on Benazir Bhutto's assassination, he said enough security steps had been taken, but the onus lay on the slain leader's personal security team's members who had taken away the spare vehicle when she was attacked, otherwise her life could have been saved.

He said the government was declaring that it would initiate action against all those involved in the crime, but it had even failed to lodge an FIR of the case over the past two years.

Mr Haq, who is championing a campaign to reunite all PML factions after reviving his own group, said the 18th Amendment had been approved to meet the personal interests of some people and it would have carried more weight if the National Accountability Bureau and the Election Commission had been declared independent of government control.

He said PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was accusing N-League leader Nawaz Sharif of accepting the amendment to pave way for his becoming the prime minister again , but he had set aside his own party's constitution to become its president for the third time.

He said the 18th Amendment had laid the grounds of setting up new provinces on linguistic, ethnic and regional basis, starting with Hazara, to be followed by Seraiki- and Urdu-speaking provinces.

He alleged that the spirit of democracy ha been killed by removing clause 4 of Article 17 to end intra-party elections to strengthen family-dominated parties.