ISLAMABAD, Nov 12: Federal Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights Dr Khalid Ranjha on Tuesday ruled out fresh elections in the country and said the inaugural session of the National Assembly will be convened this week.

Talking to Dawn here, he said there was no political crisis in the country and delay in formation of the government was because of hung parliament and political parties were busy making an alliance to form the new government.

“President Musharraf and the entire political leadership is patriotic and they believe in restoration of democracy and effective role of democratic government for integrity, security, development and prosperity of the country.”

He said some people were trying to mislead the people into believing that the government was hindering restoration of democracy. This, he added, was not true, as the government true to its commitment had held the general election for the restoration of democracy.

He said as per mandate given to President Musharraf by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the government held free, fair and transparent elections and now it was up to the political parties to complete their homework for making the new government.

Dr Khalid Ranjha said no proposal of fresh election was under consideration. “People have given mandate to the political parties. We respect it and are eager to transfer power to the new government.”

He said criticism of Legal Framework Order (LFO) was useless. He said under the LFO when the government increased the number of seats in the National and provincial assemblies, decreased the age limit of the voter up to 18 and increased the number of reserved seats for the women, no political party criticized these measures, but now they were criticizing the LFO.

“Politicians say President Musharraf has no right to amend the constitution and that the National Assembly is the only forum to amend the constitution. Now they are presenting different constitutional proposals and forcing the government to accept them before entering the National Assembly.”