ISLAMABAD: On the eve of the International Democracy Day, former President Asif Ali Zardari has called upon all institutions to work within their constitutional limits.

In a message Friday he said that in addition to rule of law, transparency, across the board accountability and tolerance of dissent democracy also called for respecting constitutional limits by all institutions, Threats to democracy have changed with time, the former President said.

There was a time when democracy was directly assaulted and this assault protected by devices like doctrine of necessity, the legal frame work orders (LFOs), provisional constitutional orders (PCOs) upheld by PCO judges.

Democracy is under threat from the militants and extremists who wish to impose their agenda by force and not through Parliament, he said.

The celebrations should also enhance peoples’ awareness of the new forms of threats to democracy and the need to guard against them, he said.

The former President also paid glowing tributes to Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto as icons of democracy and countless political leaders and workers belonging to different political parties who rendered huge sacrifices for the cause of democracy. INP