Islamabad June 7, 2008: Pakistan Peoples Party has rejected the warning of the de facto President General (retired) Musharraf that he would not sit idle and react if the Parliament moved to curtail his powers as "contempt of the Parliament and the Constitution of Pakistan".

In a statement today spokesperson of the Party former Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the Parliament, as representing the will of the people, was sovereign that could make or amend laws and the Constitution regardless of whether Musharraf liked or not.

Such hollow warnings would not deter the democratic forces from restoring the powers of the Parliament, he said.

He said that regardless of warning the PPP would go ahead with its constitutional package that aims at restoring the balance of power between the Presidency and the Parliament House.

The Party also rejects the claim that the judges were not dismissed but they did not take oath under PCO as a "most self-serving distortion of facts".

The judges had taken oath to protect and defend the Constitution of Pakistan but on November 3 last Musharraf asked them to disregard their oath and take fresh oath of allegiance to him. When some sixty most honorable judges refused to take oath of allegiance to Musharraf under the PCO they were deemed sacked.

To assert that the judges ceased to be judges because they did not take oath of allegiance to Musharraf is a mockery of the judiciary and the Constitution. It also reflects a mindset that allegiance to an individual was more important than the allegiance of the judges to the Constitution.

Musharraf's claim that he was a democrat and played a historic role for promoting democracy in the country is one of the cruelest jokes of the first decade of the twenty first century. If anything Musharraf will be remembered as one-man demolition squad who demolished the Constitution, the judiciary and the Parliament.

The de facto President pretends anguish over what is happening in the country. He would do well to pause and ponder over his own role in pushing the country to this pass, he said. 

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