Roundup: Scenario of Pak presidential elections unfolding

Thursday, September 20, 2007


Sep. 20, 2007 (Xinhua News Agency delivered by Newstex) -- Roundup: Scenario of Pak presidential elections unfolding

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Election Commission (EC) of Pakistan on Thursday issued the schedule for the presidential elections with the polling date set at Oct. 6, 2007.

'Presidential elections will be held on Oct. 6, 2007,' announced Chief Election Commissioner, Justice Qazi Muhammad Farooq.

Farooq said in a statement that the term of the president in office was to expire on Nov. 15, and under the constitution, election to the office of the president was required to be held between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15.

According to an announcement of EC, the nomination papers of candidates can be filed with the Returning and Presiding Officers till 1200 hours (0700GMT) on Sept. 27 and scrutiny of the papers will be conducted on Sept. 29.

Farooq said the nomination papers would be filed with the Returning Officer and Presiding Officer in Islamabad and with each of the Presiding Officers at Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta.

'Scrutiny of nomination papers by the Returning Officer at Islamabad will be conducted on Sept. 29 at 1000 hours (0500GMT),' Farooq said.

According to the constitution of Pakistan, a total of 1,170 of the National Assembly, Senate and four provincial assemblies are eligible to vote in the Presidential elections.

The Senate has 100 members, National Assembly 342, Punjab provincial Assembly 371, southern Sindh assembly 168, North West Frontier Province 124 and South Western Balochistan assembly 65.

Following the announcement of EC, Minister for Railways, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said at a TV program that President General Pervez Musharraf would file his nomination papers after discussing details with the ruling party leadership of Pakistan Muslim League- Qaid (PML-Q).

The Minister for Information and Broadcasting Muhammad Ali Durrani urged opposition parties to file their candidates for the presidential elections.

Major opposition parties have already announced their members of parliament and provincial assemblies would quit if the Election Commission accepted the nomination papers of Musharraf.

The opposition parties argued that Musharraf, as the Army Chief, was not qualified to contest the presidential elections according to the Constitution. Some of them cast their doubts that Musharraf had been President twice since 1999 and was not an eligible candidate for a third term, citing some provisions of the constitution.

Rashid called upon major political parties to demonstrate wisdom in the Presidential elections. He said that the ruling party had 64 percent vote and Musharraf could easily win the Presidential elections without the vote of PPP. However, Rashid stressed 'We need PPP-P votes for the credibility of presidential elections.'

According to a statement made by the chief counsel of Musharraf on Tuesday in the Supreme Court, which has been hearing petitions challenging the validity of Musharraf's candidature, Musharraf made his word that he would doff the uniform before taking oath if reelected in the presidential elections. That is to say, Musharraf will try to get reelected in uniform.

The statement irritated opposition parties, which threatened to boycott the presidential election by asking their members to quit in the parliament and provincial assemblies. The All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM), comprising most of the opposition parties in Pakistan, even asked Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), one of the major opposition parties, to act in the same way. However, PPP turned down the proposal.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim, PPP Parliamentarian leader, said the government announced the schedule of Presidential elections in a hurry and it did not even wait till the Supreme Court verdict in the matter.

Newstex ID: XIN-0001-19710707


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