The Hindu : Front Page : Pakistan gears up for polls amid tight security

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Sunday, Feb 17, 2008
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Pakistan gears up for polls amid tight security

Nirupama Subramanian

Suicide blast kills 37 at PPP rally in the north-west

Fear prevents customary big final rallies
Zardari, Sharif meet again in a week

LAHORE: Even as the Pakistan government deployed 81,000 troops in preparation for a historic election on Monday, a suicide bomber killed as many as 37 people at a Pakistan People’s Party gathering in a north-west frontier tribal area on Saturday. The attack on the final day of campaigning deepened the widespread sense of insecurity and uncertainty in the country.

The bomber struck outside the house of a PPP-backed candidate in Parachinar in the Kurram tribal agency. Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said 90 others were injured.

Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said it was a “very unfortunate incident” and that maximum security measures were in place.

A military spokesman said troops from the Pakistan Army, Rangers, Frontier Corps and Frontier Constabulary had been deployed in 90,000 areas designated as “sensitive.”

Thousands of policemen have also fanned out in all the four provinces.

In Lahore, the political barometer for the whole of Pakistan, security fears prevented the customary big final rallies by the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the PPP.

Instead, PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari, camping in Lahore after a tour of the Punjab province, was to address final rallies by party candidates by telephone. PML (N) leader Nawaz Sharif left it to his brother Shahbaz to address a meeting in Sheikhupura, 100 km from here.

Of significance was a lunch meeting between Mr. Zardari and Mr. Sharif at the Raiwind residence of the latter outside Lahore, their second meeting in a week, spurring speculation on post-election scenarios.

The meetings also appeared aimed at conveying that the PPP and the PML (N) are preparing to join forces to oppose a feared rigged result by the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), an ally of President Musharraf.

Despite predictions of a PML (Q) rout, the former Punjab Chief Minister, Pervez Elahi, who is also a prime ministerial aspirant, was sanguine about his party’s chances.

When The Hindu caught up with him at his home in Gulberg on Saturday, Mr. Elahi was emphatic that the elections would be free and fair and denied allegations of pre-poll rigging by his party, which was in power from 2002 to 2007 until the caretaker government took over.

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