99 parties apply to EC for registration

Ninety-nine political parties and groups in Pakistan have sought allotment of election symbols to run in the October parliamentary polls, Chief Election Commi-ssioner Irshad Hasan Khan said yesterday.

Irshad Hasan Khan told a news conference that the commission would take decisions on the applications in due course of time.

As the last date for political parties to submit their papers for registration and allotment of symbols expired, Khan said in all 99 parties and groups had submitted documents for registration.

The dossiers, which all parties have been mandated to provide under the rules enforced by the military government, included constitutions, manifestoes, certificates about intra-party elections and financial statements.

The commission has powers to refuse registration for failure to fulfil the requirements prescribed under the rules. Khan said the election commission (EC) had started the process to scrutinise the documents.

A clear picture about which parties will be eligible to contest the elections will emerge after the completion of the scrutiny. The election symbol seekers include Pakistan Muslim League, headed by Shahbaz Sharif, and Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians (PPPP).

PML elected Shahbaz its president in place of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to avoid disqualification from the elections while PPP formed the new PPPP group with Makhdoom Amin Fahim as its head for the same reason.

Both former prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, who is PPP chief, have been hit by the electoral rules barring convicts and fugitives from law from contesting elections as well as holding any office in any political organisation.

The government has said it would not allow Shahbaz or any other member of the exiled Sharif family to return to Pakistan. It has also warned that Benazir would be arrested if she returned from self-exile and prosecuted in corruption cases pending against her.

The National Accountability Bureau said yesterday that 22 cases were pending against the Sharif family and Benazir and her spouse Asif Ali Zardari, who has been in jail since November 1996.

Twelve cases are against the Sharif family and 10 against Benazir and her husband. "There is no question of making any compromise with the Sharif family, Benazir or Zardari," a NAB spokesman told reporters.