ISLAMABAD, March 25: The foreign liaison committee (FLC) of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has called upon President Gen Pervez Musharraf to unconditionally transfer power to the elected representatives of the people.

The committee in a meeting with former ambassador B.A. Malik in the chair discussed what it said multi-faceted crises confronting the nation. It reminded the "army chief that the country under his authoritarian rule has gone back to the pre- independence era when political power used to be wielded by a foreign power," said a statement.

"The country ruled under a system worse than the Government of India Act 1935 can not meet the challenges of the 21st century. Under such circumstances the federation will fail to sustain itself," it added.

The mounting international pressures on Pakistan with regard to terrorism, extremism and nuclear proliferation cannot be adequately addressed by keeping the nation in darkness of colonial era, it observed.

"The best response to the enormous threats to national security and national survival is restoration of the pre-October 1999 constitution, releasing of all political prisoners including Asif Ali Zardari, Javed Hashmi and Pir Mukarram Shah, safe return of exiled leaders for a grand national reconciliation and, above all, transfer of power to the elected representatives of the people unconditionally."

The regime by resorting to a witch-hunt of the opposition, subjugation of judiciary, subversion of due political process, engineered breaking-up of mainstream political parties and keeping the constitution suspended is putting the very survival of the state at risk, the meeting said.

By keeping the country under one-man's rule, the regime is inflicting incalculable damage on the Kashmir cause and political/economic development of the nation. It urged the government to understand that any political role for the armed forces was out of sync with the spirit of present times.

It urged the US, EU, Commonwealth and the developing world not to fall into the trap of "genuine democracy" laid by the regime which, it said, did not understand the elementary definition of democracy. Senator Enver Beg, Senator Rukhsana Zuberi, Farzana Raja, MPA; Nishat Afza, Palwasha Behram and Kashif Rizvi attended the meeting.