International

PPP complains to U.N. official against referendum move

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD April 18. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has taken up the decision of the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, to go in for a referendum on April 18 for extension of his tenure for five more years, with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In a letter addressed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, the party said that it considered the planned referendum as a grave violation of the Constitution and it would wage a campaign against it to educate the general public about the `grave repercussions' it would have.

"The Generals of the Pakistan Army are averse to the idea of upholding the sanctity of the Constitution. They have trampled upon it not once but many times. Referendum has been conveniently employed as an alternative to election to legitimise their rule'', the letter said.

The PPP letter said the bogey of referendum was used in 1960 to confirm Field Marshal Ayub Khan as President of Pakistan; it was used to extend the presidency of Zia-ul-Haq in 1984, and now Gen. Musharraf is using it. "All these gentlemen have the honour of taking over the reins of the country by illegal means''.

The party said the Supreme Court of Pakistan validated the Army takeover on the ground that it would hold general elections within three years from the date it took over.

Gen. Musharraf solemnly pledged to the nation that he would abide by the court decision, hold elections within the stipulated time and hand over power to the elected representatives.

``However, a high profile campaign was launched by his Government against the preceding democratic governments, calling them `sham democracies' and promised to introduce genuine democracy in the country'', the letter complained.

It said that Gen.Musharraf, like all military dictators in the past, talked of democracy at the grass-roots level, and introduced the district government system. Similar programmes with different names, were tried by the then military dictators, Gen. Ayub Khan and Gen. Zia-ul-Haq respectively. "Both these programmes failed to take roots and acceptance among the masses and were forgotten with the departure''.

``The new system enabled the junta to acquire 200,000 local body councilors, without divesting powers on them, as convenient collaborators in their design to perpetuate their rule'', the PPP letter said.

After the first step, and as the deadline for elections is approaching fast, the General had finally taken off the "mask of a protagonist of genuine democracy and audaciously announced a referendum'' to ensure the continuation of his programme of reforms'', for he feels that without him "Pakistan has no future''.

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