KARACHI, June 13: The Pakistan People’s Party has deplored General Musharraf and the leaders of the ruling Muslim League for accusing the opposition of taking instructions from abroad.

The central information secretary of the PPP, Taj Haider, took exception to Gen Musharraf’s remarks in which he had, while criticizing the opposition, implied that the PPP chairperson was a foreigner. He reminded the General that leader of the second biggest coalition party in his “coalition of the vested interest” proudly displayed his British nationality.

He said that the people of Pakistan unequivocally rejected dictatorship. “He (Musharraf) forgets that his source of remaining in power is the goodwill and support of those in Washington. They are the real policy-makers of his government. He remains answerable to them and not to the people of Pakistan. It is the satisfaction of the IFIs, and not the public opinion, which is the criteria for the so called success of his economic policies. The foreign policy and the defence have already been made subservient to the wishes of the Western powers,” claimed Mr Haider.

“In order to please the West, he (Gen Musharraf) can accuse the religious parties of Talibanizing the whole country and even ridicule Islamic tenets. What the previous military dictator had not done in the name of Islamization? Can he criticize the policies of that dictator?” he remarked.

Mr Haider claimed that the exile of Ms Bhutto exposed the state of dispensing justice under the military yoke, where even the Bar refused to take up cases.