International
Benazir's call for interim set-up in Pakistan
By B. Muralidhar Reddy
ISLAMABAD, JAN. 21 The Pakistan People's Party Chairperson and former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, has demanded the constitution of an interim set-up for a free and fair general election due in October this year.
In a letter addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan, Irshad Hasan Khan, the PPP chairperson suggested that the coming elections be held on the basis of the computerised electoral lists prepared in 1995.
She reminded the Commission that the previous CEC, Qadeer Chaudhry, had already rejected the electoral lists prepared by the Musharraf regime which ``had the names of my entire Cabinet and myself missing as well as of many other political opponents''.
Ms. Bhutto claimed that during the 1997 elections, there were two sets of electoral rolls. The one that was given to the candidates and the other to the presiding officers.
The names of scores of voters were found missing in the list the presiding officers had. Emphasising a neutral interim set-up to conduct elections fairly Ms. Bhutto said, ``the people of Bangladesh transfer power to their judiciary in an interim government of neutrality to conduct such elections. This is one solution. Another is the one proposed by the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy to have elections under a government of national consensus''.
She said that the third and minimum requirement to prevent partisanship polluting the electoral process is the induction of neutral persons without axes to grind against the political front-runners or others in the election process.
The PPP also demanded the introduction of multi-identity system as in vogue in the 1985 elections.
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