Murtaza Bhutto

The PPP secretary-general said the government was in agreement with the
suggestions sent by President Farooq Leghari through special messages to the
Senate and the National Assembly on amendments in PO 16 and PO 17 of
1977. But at the same time it felt that operation of law should not remain
limited to the guidelines of the two presidential orders. "Should the scope of
the law not be extended to those who level false charges", he asked and
added that a false allegation should not go unpunished.
PRESIDENT: To a question about the president asserting his constitutional
powers, Senator Sheikh claimed that recent developments had been to the
disadvantage of the PML and its leadership rather than the government. "The
evidence can be traced in the frustration shown by opposition leader Mian
Nawaz Sharif and his colleagues. They have failed to achieve what they
wanted".
As for the president's role, the PPP leader said, "We feel that he (the
president) has been out to establish a true parliamentary democracy on the
British pattern for which the constitution was to be so amended as to suit its
dispensation. But the PPP also feels that the president may be loyal to the
constitution, but his loyalty to his stand on the basis of which he was elected
president appears to have been diluted for some reasons".
The constitution, he said, gave the president the right to dissolve the National
Assembly and seek a fresh mandate of the electorate, but it was incumbent
upon him to act only when a situation arose for such an action. "The present
situation certainly is far from such a condition", he said. According to him,
there was a stable PDF government at the centre and the alliance was running
coalitions in three provinces. The governance had been smooth and a
breakdown of constitutional machinery was not feared.
The PPP secretary-general said the government had pursued more vigorously
the cause of Kashmir leaving a deep impact on the world community to help
resolve the dispute. On the question of the CTBT, Pakistan had put the Indian
government under international pressure. The armed forces were happy with
the prime minister for procurement of large quantities of arms, including
submarines and tanks.
Above all, he said, the government had restored peace in Karachi which Mr
Nawaz Sharif was unable to do during his tenure as prime minister. Almost
all terrorists, who had besieged Karachi, had either been identified or
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