The Hindu : Pak. parties await EC move

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 13, 2002

International

International

Pak. parties await EC move

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Aug. 12 .As the last date for the Pakistan political parties for submission of necessary documents under the new rules to the Election Commission ended today, all eyes in the country would be on its actions in the next few days.

The Commission has to decide on a number of contentious issues in the light of the new rules framed by the Musharraf regime which has been denounced by most of the parties as measures intended to eliminate individual leaders and promote favourite parties in the new National and Provincial assemblies.

The two mainstream parties, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) led by the former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) headed by another former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, would wait with bated breath for the decisions of the Commission on a number of issues.

Doubts have arisen on whether the PML and the PPP would be recognised by the Commission for the purpose of the general election though they went out of their way to conform to the new rules framed by the military Government. Senior functionaries of the Musharraf regime have raised certain points with regard to the eligibility of the two main parties. Within two days after the PML replaced with Mr. Nawaz Sharif with his younger brother and former Chief Minister of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif, several senior members in the Musharraf Government questioned the decision. They maintained that the new president was a co-accused in at least two cases of loan default and was part of the `exile deal' between the Sharif family and the Government.

In order to escape the new provisions of the law, the PPP floated a separate `entity' called the PPP Parliamentarians while swearing its allegiance to Ms. Bhutto and the Bhutto clan and political philosophy. The cases related to the two parties would indeed be a litmus test for the Election Commission.

Several commentators and political observers have pointed out that any election without the participation of the two mainstream parties would be considered a farce. Already the credibility of the election has come under cloud with the new rules and regulations considered being Benazir and Nawaz specific. Interestingly today, the Election Commission took suo moto notice of reports in a section of the press about the effort by the military Government to promote the interests of `king's party' and directed the authorities to come out with a reply in a week's time. The Pakistan English daily, The News, in a front page report has said that a Grand National Alliance of pro-Government parties, based on the pattern of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI), to block the way of the return of Ms. Benazir Bhutto's party to power was on the cards.

The daily said a meeting of several pro-Musharraf parties was in progress with the Establishment. Discussions over whether the "proposed GNA would be a formally declared alliance or a seat-to-seat adjustment '' were on.

The PML-Q of Mian Azhar and the National Alliance parties "including Millat Party of Farooq Leghari, the National Awami Party Pakistan of Ajmal Khattak and the Sindh Democratic Alliance of Imtiaz Sheikh'' were identified as the main characters in the script.

``With this unexpected move, recent political history has repeated itself. The Establishment had earlier formed the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) in 1990 with a view to prevent the PPP and Ms. Benazir Bhutto from storming back to power,'' the report said. ``Intelligence reports show that the recent spate of laws aimed at reforming political parties and making life difficult for the beleaguered PPP has in fact boomeranged on the Government,'' the daily said quoting sources.

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