RAWALPINDI: Mr Mohammad Yusuf Khattak, Member, National Assembly, and a former General Secretary of the All-Pakistan Muslim League, yesterday supported the view that if a member of a political party is elected President of Pakistan he should automatically become head of that party.

In an interview prior to his departure for Karachi to attend the Convention of Muslim Leaguers, Mr Khattak said that to consider the Government and the people separate from each other was a “hang-over” of foreign rule.

The Government and the people after the attainment of independence were closely interlinked and it would be an ideal thing if the head of the political party in power was also the Head of State in the country.

Mr Khattak did not favour hard and fast rules being laid down for the election of a Muslim League President from one wing or the other.

The would-be President of the Muslim League should be a person above regional and parochial considerations, he said.

Mr Khattak was confident that the Muslim League as it would emerge after the convention would be capable of counteracting the “sinister activities of anti-national elements”.

He said that patriotic and law-abiding persons had remained inactive during the martial law as political activity was banned. On the other hand “anti-national and un-patriotic” elements had continued working underground.

He said the Muslim League had defeated the combined forces against the Pakistan movement before independence. It still had the capability to achieve the same results now, he added. —Agencies