PESHAWAR, May 31: The Pakistan People’s Party has said that it will oppose the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government’s Hasba Bill because it considers it a parallel justice system repugnant to the law of the land. Provincial PPP chief Rahimdad Khan told a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday that his party was opposed to the theocratic mode of governance and added that the Hasba bill was aimed at promoting corporal punishment.

He said that enforcement of the Hasba Bill would take the society back to the autocratic rule of monarchs who had never been answerable to any court. He said there was nothing in the bill to cater to the needs of the people and the government. “The constitution does not allow any legislation parallel to the existing system,” he maintained.

Referring to the NFC issue, the PPP leader said the MMA had already sacrificed the NFC award on the altar of the Legal Framework Order.

He denied a deal being negotiated between the PPP and Gen Pervez Musharraf and said his party believed in dialogue and its doors were open for the purpose. He said Gen Musharraf had no option but to initiate a dialogue with the PPP, for it was the only popular political force in the country.

He said the PPP had called upon the government to restore the 1973 Constitution in its original form, set up an independent election commission and hold general elections in 2005.