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Sharif may withdraw papers

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD SepT. 6. The former Pakistan Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, might withdraw his election papers in solidarity with Benazir Bhutto, whose papers have been rejected by authorities, but his brother and former Chief Minister of Punjab, Shabaz Sharif, would remain in the fray.

Shahbaz Sharif crossed a major hurdle when the Election Tribunal refused to entertain a petition challenging his election papers on the ground that he had `patronised' the attack by some leaders of the Muslim League on the Supreme Court in 1997.

It has not gone unnoticed that the Government has not raised any objections to the candidature of the younger Sharif to a seat for the National Assembly. Silence on the part of the Government is intriguing, as senior functionaries of the military Government in recent days had argued that the entire Sharif clan was not eligible to participate in the October elections.

Their contention was that the Sharif clan chose to migrate to Saudi Arabia in December 2000 under a pact with the Government. It was claimed that in lieu of the decision of the Government to exonerate the former Prime Minister of the charges and convictions against him, the family had consented not to return to Pakistan or dabble in domestic politics till 2010.

The decision of the Election Tribunal to reject the petition questioning the nomination papers of Shahbaz Sharif is certainly bad news for the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam), nicknamed the King's party for its proximity to the military Government.

The splinter group of the Muslim League had hoped to cash in on the `vote bank' of the Sharif family and virtually every party has accused the Government of favouring it to win as many seats as possible in the new Parliament. Strangely, even politicians like the former cricketer, Imran Khan and Izazul Haq, son of Zia ul Haq, who till recently were all praise for Gen. Musharraf, have turned against him on this subject.

Incidentally, on Thursday, the Punjab Election Commission Tribunal overruled the decision of the Returning Officer of one of the three constituencies where Imran Khan had filed his nomination papers and allowed him to contest. Authorities had rejected the papers of Mr. Khan on the ground that he had not got his degree attested in accordance with procedure.

There is no word yet from the Sindh Tribunal on the petition filed by the former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, questioning the decision of the Returning Officers in three separate constituencies to reject her election papers.

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