HYDERABAD, Dec 21: Rejecting the 1973 Constitution, the Communist Party of Pakistan (dissident group) has stressed the need for a new democratic and secular constitution in the country.

An announcement to this effect was made by the secretary- general of the party, Comrade Khadim Thaheem, and the secretary of the Sindh Committee, Comrade Rauf Korai, at a press conference at the local press club on Friday.

The new constitution, they said, would guarantee equal rights and the right to self-determination to all the people besides eliminating the fedualism, fundamentalism and military dictatorship.

They called for distributing state lands among peasants cooperatives, saying that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) had been created to capture the natural resources of the developing countries through 100 multi-national companies, adding that the working class should wage a struggle against the WTO’s anti-peoples policies.

Accusing successive military leaders of having used elections to impede democracy and perpetuate their own rule, they said that this had resulted in induction into power of elements, who were pro-imperialist, pro-military, undemocratic and anti-people.

They accused the rulers of having sold out the country’s interests to the US imperialism to protect and prolong their unconstitutional rule, besides blaming them for unifying the fundamentalists under the umbrella of the Muttahida Majlis-i- Amal (MMA) to sabotage the democratic process.

They said that the basic objective of the rulers was to use the MMA as a catalyst to create a political crisis in the country, adding that the military rulers would also wield the MMA as a weapon to throttle democracy.

The CPP leaders claimed that the 1973 Constitution had become meaningless after the incorporation of the Legal Framework Order, which had opened the floodgate for horse-trading.

Decrying the increasing number of suicides because of joblessness and hunger, they said that while the educated youths had been deprived of their right to employment, serving armymen were being inducted into each and every organisation.

Criticizing the destruction of national institutions, they said the youths were being deprived of their right to education due to the privatisation of educational institutions and promulgation of black laws such as the Model University Ordinance.