HYDERABAD, April 9: The chairman of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Raja Zafarul Haq, has said the integrity of the country is far more important than Kalabagh dam.

He was talking at “Meet the Press” programme of the Hyderabad press club on Saturday.

He said if People’s Party Parliamentarians or any other party came into power after free and fair elections his party would certainly welcome the set-up because military dictatorship was worse type of government.

He said the PML believed in the restoration of democracy, constitution and rule of law.

Iqbal Hussain Jhagra, Makhdoom Shahnawaz, Shabbir Hassan Ansari, Haider Shah and Soorath Thebo were present on the occasion.

He said the government was giving an impression that certain political parties were not interested in serious dialogue and in order to ease pressure was sending overtures to some parties to create confusion in the minds of the general public.

He said the ARD and MMA were unanimous in their opinion that Gen Musharraf was not acceptable.

He said whatever movement was launched against the military dictatorship; it should be ensured that no other general takes the advantage of the situation as had been happening in Pakistan.

Referring to telephonic address of party leader Nawaz Sharif at a public meeting on Friday night, Mr Haq said Mian Sahib had made it clear that no dialogue would be held with the usurpers of power.

Answering a question about the division of Hyderabad and performance of the Sindh government, he said newspapers were replete with news about the performance of the Sindh government and now the Sindh chief minister had gone to London.

Expressing concern over the prevailing law and order situation in the country, specially Sindh, the PML-N chairman said capital cities throughout the world were considered the safest places but in Pakistan heinous crimes like kidnappings for ransom, car lifting and bank robberies were taking place in Islamabad and other provincial capitals.

He said the people were groaning under the weight of price hike and indirect taxes and the government was announcing new budgets every week.

He said the Karachi Stock Exchange had crashed and a handful of people had earned billions while thousands of poor people had been robbed.

He said instead of playing its due role in the Security Council, Gen Musharraf during the administration of President Bush senior had wished that Pakistan should not have been a member of the Security Council.

He said a prime minister had the right to appoint his own ministers but the same cabinet was thrust on three prime ministers in Pakistan.

He called upon all political parities to unite on a minimum agenda of restoration of true democracy, constitution and rule of law in the country.

Answering a question about contacts between People’s Party Parliamentarians and the government, Raja Zafarul Haq said that during meeting between Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif it had been decided that the final decision would be taken on the platform of ARD.

Answering another question about Kashmir, he said it was an unfinished agenda of the partition of the subcontinent.

He said even Jawaharlal Nehru was on record having said that it was his earnest desire that Kashmir should remain with India but had also made it clear that Kashmiris alone had the right to decide about their future.

He referred to a letter of the Lord Mountbatten in which he had said while security forces were being provided it was a matter of policy of the British government that the people of Kashmir would decide their own future.

Raja Zafarul Haq said that UN resolutions were also absolutely clear on this point.

About the division of Hyderabad district, he asked, “why not all the talukas should be upgraded to the district level”.

About the disharmony between provinces, he quoted a reporter of The Washington Post who had said that while there was only one India, there were several Pakistans.

He regretted that while the opposition parties in India supported the government in matters of national importance, the present rulers were trying to create disharmony.