Benazir to file plea against disqualification
The Pakistan People's Party will file an appeal before the Election Commission's special tribunal, challenging the disqualification of its chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, a senior party leader said yesterday, adding it was most likely the appeal will be filed tomorrow.
"Legally we have an iron-clad case," Raza Rabbani, PPP's general secretary, told Gulf News. "I am looking forward for the dispensation of justice."
The returning officers in Bhutto's home-town of Larkana rejected her nomination papers on two National Assembly seats - 204 and 297, saying that convicted people are ineligible to run in elections.
Also, officials of the Election Commission in Karachi rejected her nomination for the reserved women's seat in the National Assembly on similar grounds.
Bhutto, who has been given three-year prison sentences each for abstaining from proceedings of two corruption cases, calls her conviction unjust. She says that lawyers represented her in the court.
The ouster of Bhutto from elections has long been expected because President Gen. Pervez Musharraf had vowed to keep what he calls corrupt politicians out of the new democratic setup.
The October 10 elections would return Pakistan to democracy after a three-year military rule. Bhutto, who earlier vowed to lead her party in the elections, has said that her plans to return to the country have been delayed because of her disqualification.
Rabbani said Bhutto would take a decision about her return to the country after consultation with the PPP's central committee.
"The morale of our workers is high. The government's attempts to oust Bhutto from elections have further galvanised them," he said.
There have been few minor protests and incidents of violence in southern Sindh province following the rejection of Bhutto's nomination papers. Party sources say that the workers are disappointed and lack direction.
Bhutto, who is living in exile since early 1999, faces at least 12 corruption cases. The government has warned that she would be sent to jail on her return and has asked to face the court.
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