ISLAMABAD, April 1: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Tuesday rejected the criticism of its contacts with the government and said it would keep all options open for restoration of democracy and holding of free, fair and transparent elections.

Speaking at a press conference, the Secretary General People’s Party Parliamentarians Raja Pervez Ashraf said chaos would rule the country if free and fair elections were not held in the country.

He said the components of Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) were unanimous on restoration of democracy in the country.

He said during contacts with the government, PPP too stresses the need for restoration of democracy, holding of free and fair elections, supremacy of the constitution and the rights of the public. He said the PPP was not seeking any deal with the government. “We have nothing to conceal. We will do what is beneficial for democracy and in the interests of the people of the country,” he remarked.

He said the history was testimony to the fact that the PPP had never compromised on principles.

He said the PPP still believed that military uniform and democracy could not go together. He however did not reveal whether his party would accept Musharraf as President if he sheds his military uniform and said “We will cross the bridge when it comes”.

He however said the re-election of President Musharraf from the present Assemblies would be unconstitutional and immoral and would be opposed by his party. “How can an assembly having a tenure of five years elect a person for ten years,” he questioned.

He welcomed the recent survey of International Republican Institute (IRI) which rated Ms Benazir Bhutto as the most popular leader of the country followed by General Pervez Musharraf and Nawaz Sharif.

The survey was completed just two days before the judicial crisis.

The randomly selected samples consisted of 3997 adult men and women from nearly 256 villages and 144 urban locations from 65 districts in all the four provinces of Pakistan.

Raja Pervez Ashraf said it was also a positive sign that 81 per cent people of the country wanted to see democracy in the country and 70 per cent of them were of the opinion that only democracy can force the government to do something about the economy, jobs and inflation.—Our Reporter