World | Pakistan
Move to postpone by-elections draws flak from two main parties
Pakistan's Election Commission on Monday suddenly postponed the forthcoming by-elections by two months, drawing strong protest from the two major parties of the ruling coalition.
- By Shahid Hussain, Correspondent
- Published: 00:12 May 6, 2008
- Image Credit: EPA
- Shahbaz Sharif (left) arrives to file his nomination papers for the by-elections, as a supporter carries a portrait of Nawaz Sharif at district courts in Lahore on Monday.
Islamabad: Pakistan's Election Commission on Monday suddenly postponed the forthcoming by-elections by two months, drawing strong protest from the two major parties of the ruling coalition.
The commission announced that by-elections would be held on August 18 instead of June 18 as previously scheduled.
It cited the law and order situation in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the upcoming budget sessions of the federal and provincial assemblies and the overall security environment as the reasons for the postponement.
The decision coincided with the scheduled start of filing of papers by prospective candidates for six vacant National Assembly seats and 32 vacant seats in the assemblies of Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan.
The commission said those who had filed candidacy papers would not be required do so afresh.
Pakistan Peoples Party spokesman Farhatullah Babar termed the reasons given by the commission a "lame excuse".
"We reject and strongly oppose it," the PPP spokesman said, adding the PPP-led coalition government would try to get the commission's decision reversed.
Responding to a question he said PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had not yet taken a final decision about running in the by-elections for the National Assembly.
Information Minister Sherry Rehman, who is from PPP, also expressed strong resentment, telling the state-run television that neither the government nor political parties were consulted about the postponement.
Spokesman for Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), Siddiqul Farooq, said there was no justification at all for the "surprising postponement."
The PML-N spokesman voiced the suspicion that the presidency was behind the postponement. "It is part of the conspiracies being hatched at the presidency," Farooq said.
He alleged that the secretary of the election commission Kanwar Dilshad had lately made a number of visits to the presidency.
Dilshad, speaking to state television, said if the federal government asked for a review the election commission could reconsider the decision.
Meanwhile Supreme Court Bar Association president Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan filed his papers to contest by-election for the National Assembly from a seat vacated by PML-N senior leader Javed Hashemi in Rawalpindi.
Shahbaz Sharif, younger brother of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, filed papers in Lahore to run for the Punjab assembly. He is to become chief minister of the Punjab after becoming member of the provincial assembly.
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