LAHORE, May 20: All political parties must prepare for the next general elections, which will be the “fairest ever”, says Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani.

Briefing journalists during his maiden news conference after assuming charge of the information ministry here on Saturday, he said all parties were legally required to hold fair and transparent internal elections to qualify for the polls. Those that failed to hold internal polls would be kept out of the electoral process and they would not be justified to protest their exclusion, he emphasised.

In an obvious reference to Benazir Bhutto, he said there was no concept of a life-time chairperson.

The minister said the government did not intend to initiate conflicts with opposition parties. “We will accept all fair demands and resist anything that is unfair.”

The minister said that President Pervez Musharraf was willing to resolve the internal problems in opposition parties, including the People’s Party Parliamentarians and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).

He said: “I (can) guarantee (that) the president will settle internal matters of the PPP and the PML-N, just like he is resolving problems in the ruling PML, if they approach him.”

Opposition parties had criticised the president for presiding over meetings of the ruling PML and said he was transgressing his constitutional powers by trying to resolve the party’s internal conflicts. Many criticised the president for throwing his weight behind the ruling PML and said they were doubtful about the holding of free and fair elections if he (the president) remained in power.

Without naming anyone but leaving no doubt that he was referring to the period of the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the minister said there was a time when the president was without any real powers at all and people ridiculed him through graffiti seeking “the president’s release”.