ISLAMABAD, Nov 30: Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Benazir Bhutto, has condemned “the betrayal of those who were elected from the PPP platform, but subsequently voted against the party discipline.”

“They have damaged the party, the battle for democracy and the country”, she said in a statement issued here on Saturday by the PPP media cell.

She has also said that today the uniformed generals are calling parliamentarians and asking them to defect. “I do not have a uniform, but I do have the respect of the people. I will continue to defend the political and economic rights of Pakistanis who deserve a better future than the trampling of their constitutional rights, their electoral mandate and the opportunity to progress and prosper.

“I urge people, especially the people of their (dissidents) constituencies to take notice of the betrayal, the treachery and disloyalty to the party”.

She called upon the PPP MNAs to show courage, loyalty, character and integrity. She also called upon the PPP workers not to be disheartened by the betrayals. Ms Bhutto said: “We saw many such betrayals before and emerged stronger than before. All the defections in the world fail to change the reality that the PPP won the elections of 2002. The people are with the PPP and the PPP with the people”.

She stated that the regime was busy in rigging parliament after rigging the election and said the regime should instead concentrate on protecting our teachers and doctors, giving job opportunities to our youth and relief to the working and middle classes, farmers and workers.

She said it would have been far more honourable for the defectors to leave the party before the elections than to stab it in the back after the elections having support of the people in the name of the PPP.

The former premier noted that the defectors had applied for the PPP tickets, took our symbol, our votes and also took the peoples’ mandate on the basis of representing the party.

“After getting the mandate, they showed the worst kind of opportunism by joining the regime out of inducement or coercion”.

“If anyone was unhappy with the party, they were free to leave us before the elections. However taking our tickets and then leaving the PPP amounts to stealing our votes”.

Ms Bhutto said the PPP expected its parliamentarians to stick by it through thick and thin on the strength of their moral character and political affiliation to the party‘s programme and philosophy. She called upon the PPP parliamentarians to stand by their party with courage, respect and honour.

She said the defectors were wrongly taking her name and claiming that they would get her back to Pakistan. Such seemingly pious statements were not more than an expression of guilt, complex and a futile bid to rehabilitate themselves in the public eye, she said.

She vowed to continue her struggle for the Pakistani people.