KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Shehla Raza claimed on Wednesday that martial law could not be imposed in the country until three general elections were held in the country, DawnNews reported.

Speaking to a private TV channel, the PPP stalwart said that the agreement was reached under a clause in the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), adding that the United States, Britain, UAE as well as then ISI chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani had guaranteed this.

Raza said former president Asif Ali Zardari had also travelled to the US to remind world powers of their past promises.

The PPP has disassociated itself from Raza’s statement which the party has declared ‘misleading’ and 'contrary to facts'.

According to a PPP spokesperson, Raza’s stance on the matter did not correspond with the party’s approach.

Raza's statement comes in the backdrop of former president Asif Ali Zardari’s iftar-dinner with US Vice President Joe Biden.

Although the meeting was a social event hosted by Pakistan’s former ambassador-at-large, Ray Mahmud, it has generated a lot of interest and also political heat with both PPP and PML-N circles in the United States claiming that Zardari is in America to solicit US support for the current political system in Pakistan.

The NRO was promulgated by former military ruler Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf on October 5, 2007, to provide immediate relief to assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto by giving indemnity in all cases registered against her by the Nawaz Sharif government between 1986 and 1989.

On December 17, 2009, the Supreme Court declared the controversial NRO as never to have existed and against the Constitution by reviving all cases and reversing acquittals of its beneficiaries.