ISLAMABAD, May 16: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said that Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif have signed the Charter of Democracy (CoD) not for the public but for their own vested interests and they do not pay any heed to masses’ needs.

He expressed these views while talking to parliamentarians belonging to Lahore and Kasur at the Army House in Rawalpindi on Tuesday.

The president said that the charter was an attempt to hoodwink the people into thinking that they were working for democracy. “In fact this was an attempt just to save their own future and re-enter power corridors,” he added.

The president on the occasion called upon the PML members to monitor development projects in their respective constituencies and work along with district governments for their timely completion so that public voted for them on merit and their performance. Gen Musharraf said the government was well aware of the situation arising out of rising inflation in the country and was devising a strategy to overcome this, which would be announced before the federal budget. However, he urged the departments concerned to play their role in lessening the suffering of the people.

The president also called upon the PML members to prepare themselves for the next general elections and restructure the party from the grassroots level.

PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Secretary-General Mushahid Hussain and Chief Minister of Punjab Chaudhry Pervez Elahi were also present.

On the occasion PML forward bloc member Farooq Amjad Mir expressed his reservations and stressed the need for unity within the ranks for making PML a viable party.

To this the president directed Chaudhry Shujaat to remove reservations of the forward block and said that if this was not ensured then he would himself have to intervene.

MEGA PROJECTS: During the meeting they discussed the pace of development projects in their areas and the political environment in the country.

President Musharraf said the country had been put firmly on the path of high economic growth and the government was resolved to transferring economic benefits to the common man through the completion of mega projects and generating employment opportunities.

He said the government had launched a series of projects to ensure fast-track provision of basic facilities including education, health, safe drinking water, electricity and natural gas across the country.

In this respect, he underlined that elected representatives should continuously follow progress on development schemes as these would lead to socio-economic betterment of people and bring about a qualitative change in the people’s lives.

FATA UPLIFT: Talking to another delegation of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Gen Musharraf renewed the government’s commitment to bring about socio-economic development in the FATA.

The president stated this during a meeting with a delegation of senators belonging to FATA that included Hameedullah Jan, Maulana Abdul Malik, Engineer Rashid and Abdul Raziq.

“The government has started a number of projects in health, education and economic fields and will carry out these with active participation of the elected representatives to bring the tribal areas into the mainstream of development,” he said.—Agencies