Comments on Mush is 'relic of the past': Zardari

Lahore, May 24: Pakistan People's Party (PPP) co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said that his comments about President Pervez Musharraf being a "relic of the past" were not an outburst, and hoped that the President would not be insensitive to what people wanted.

He said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was still part of the ruling coalition as the PPP was still part of the Punjab Government, and the PML-N still shared responsibility with the PPP at the federal level. The Daily Times quoted Zardari as saying that the PPP's proposed constitutional reforms package was a proposal that the Parliament would debate on.

He said that the government was trying to strengthen the parliament, and added that it was up to Aitzaz Ahsan to decide if he wanted to contest the elections and the party had "no issues in this regard".

Zardari had said in an interview on Thursday that Musharraf was a "relic of the past" standing between the people of Pakistan and democracy, and that there was tremendous pressure on the new government to ensure his ousting from office.

The public, Zardari had said, was telling the PPP that, "We don't want bread, we don't want electricity, but we want him out". "For two months, I have been trying to do a whitewash ... to dialogue with the people of Pakistan and my party, that okay, let's have national reconciliation, but people are not willing to accept my position on that," Zardari said.

ANI