1.         The PPP is the symbol for democracy and civilian rule. The party’s negotiations with General Musharraf were aimed at an orderly transition to democracy. 

2.         We recognize that protests in the streets lead to loss of life, liberty and livelihood and even when the protests are peaceful from the viewpoint of pro-democracy activists. Therefore we have always used protests as a last option when other doors are closed. Our goal from the outset was to set the course for a successful transition to democracy and a political marginalization of the anti-people and extremist forces. 

3.         The Ordinance of National Reconciliation and other public declarations is a broad package of reforms that facilitates the transition to democracy in Pakistan. Its very preamble acknowledges the abuses that have occurred under dictatorship by stating that it “is expedient to promote national reconciliation, foster mutual trust and confidence amongst holders of public office and remove the vestiges of political vendetta and victimization…and to make the electoral process more transparent.”    To that end the Nation has got: 

1. A public agreement by General Musharraf before the Supreme Court of Pakistan to resign his position as Chief of Army Staff and to take his oath of office as President, if he should be re-elected, as a civilian.

2. Part of an important electoral reform demanded by political parties and groups representing the civil society to prevent rigging and vote counting fraud in subsequent election, by amending laws to provide that “after consolidation of results the Returning Officer shall give to such contesting candidates and their election agents as are present during the consolidation proceedings, a copy of the result of the count notified to the Commission immediately against proper receipt and shall also post a copy thereof to the other candidates and election agents.”

3. Addressing the problem of governmental intimidation undoing the will of the electorate, as was the case in the General elections of 2002, a Parliamentary Committee on Ethics will be created.  The Committee will prevent intimidation of members of the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies by the government to cross party lines under coercive threat of charges and imprisonment on trumped up political charges as has occurred in the past, most notably in the Assembly elections of 2002.

Furthermore, the Parliamentary Committee on Ethics protecting Parliamentarians and thereby ensuring the sanctity of the assembly’s popular mandate, will -- in an extraordinary extension of democracy -- recognize the role in democratic governance of the Opposition. Members of said Committee on Ethics will be chosen on the recommendation of the Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition, with equal representation from both sides. 

4. An agreement by the regime to end unproven cases from prosecution, against Parliamentarians of all political parties who were “falsely involved for political reasons or through political victimization” during the years prior to in 1999 but never convicted.  This provision applied to parliamentarians associated with all major political parties in Pakistan, including those from the opposition parties such as PML (N) led by Mr. Nawaz Sharif.

 

4.         Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto could have secured an arrangement favorable to herself long ago.  Instead she endured exile and a psychological war campaign while her husband suffered eight and a half years in prison courageously refusing a personal arrangement for a political principle. (The call to drop politically motivated cases is enshrined in the Charter of Democracy as well as in Resolutions by the Pakistan Bar Association, the ARD and the major political parties.) 

She insisted on measure to prevent political re-engineering through false cases as well as in future to prevent horse-trading.  The PPP is committed to fight against corruption through the rule of law. 

5.         The PPP has upheld its democratic principles in negotiations with the regime.   First and above all, it insists on free, fair and transparent elections, supervised by a neutral caretaker government and an independent Election Commission. 

6.         It continues to insist on a civilian president without uniform, restoration of the balance of powers between president and prime minister and article 58-2(b) of the Constitution enabling the President to undermine the sovereignty of Parliament (which led to the dysfunctional democracy of the nineties), and an end of the military imposed ban on two-term priming ministers from running for a third term. 

7.         The PPP negotiations were not structured around any “power sharing” concept.  The issue of which political party would form the government will be determined only by the people of Pakistan through fair general elections.   

8.         Finally the PPP believes that transition to democracy, which begins with the Reconciliation Ordinance, will take place in a phased manner.  Some critical steps have already been taken like the arrangement for the shedding of military uniform. Other key steps on electoral reform, incorporating the recommendations of The Citizen’s Group on Electoral Politics, which will ensure transparency and sanctity of the forthcoming National Assembly and Provincial Assembly elections are still being discussed.