The Hindu : Sind Tribunal dismisses Benazir appeals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 14, 2002

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International

Sind Tribunal dismisses Benazir appeals

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Sept. 13. It is curtains for the former Prime Ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, and their families as the Election Commission Tribunals in Punjab and Sindh ruled that under the new electoral rules they are not eligible to contest the October elections.

The Sindh Tribunal today dismissed all the three appeals filed by Ms. Bhutto against rejection of her papers for the National Assembly.

On Thursday the Punjab Election Commission Tribunal had disqualified wife and brother of Mr. Sharif from taking part in the election.

With the disqualification of Ms. Bhutto and Mr. Sharif and his family members to run for the October general election, the election scene would now be dominated by party faithfuls.

It is for the first time since the 1988 election that the two families do not have any role in the general election.

Tension and drama preceded the disqualification of Ms. Bhutto as the Tribunal sentenced her lawyer, Anwar Yoousuf Zai, to six months jail and Rs. 5,000 fine for contempt of court after he chanted "shame'' over the rejection of the appeal.

The lawyer was convicted shortly after his arrest on the Tribunal's order after he shouted slogans against the verdict.

The Pakistan Peoples Party condemned the dismissal of appeals by the Sind Tribunal.

In a statement today, the acting secretary-general of the party, Mian Raza Rabbani, alleged that the rejection of Mohtarma Bhutto' s appeals had exposed the hollowness of the regime's claims that the elections would be held in a fair and free manner.

``The elections can never be fair and free as long as the head of the country's largest political party and the twice-elected Prime Minister of the country was not allowed to take part in the elections'', he said.

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