MIRPURKHAS, June 17: Former Federal Minister Nawab Mohammed Yousuf Talpur has said the army rule in Pakistan has proved unhelpful for the country and the need of the hour was restoration of democracy.

The member of the Pakistan People’s Party’s central executive committee claimed that the government was tacitly patronising a government of their its choice and blocking the way for PPP to come to power, he said in a statemnt issued here on Monday.

He said people of Pakistan had twice elected Benazir Bhutto as prime minister and the nation had made it abundantly clear to the world that it treated all people equally. However, he said certain groups within the government were facilitating smaller parties to join hands to oppose Benazir Bhutto to come to power. “Alliances with fundamentalist leanings are being propped up to block the way of the PPP and its leadership,” he said.

The PPP leader said his party had always won whenever free, fair and transparent elections had been held in Pakistan but democracy has never been allowed to flourish. He demanded an interim government of national consensus to hold free and fair elections to avoid further damage to the national interests.