Besides the Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan-led ARD, the Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi-led National Alliance (NA) and the Hamid Nasir Chattha-led Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) will not be able to contest the poll for having failed to hold internal elections by August 5, the deadline set in the PPO, The News reported today.

Under the new Ordinance, for being eligible for contesting the October 10 poll, the parties and alliances were not only required to hold internal party elections by August 5 but were also asked to submit documents to the Election Commission (EC) for certification accordingly.

The ARD, the GDA and the NA have been disqualified from applying for election symbols before the EC as they failed to forward the required documents by the cut-off date.

The ARD comprises 15 major and smaller parties, including the mainstream Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples’ Party, which is also out of the election politics for not meeting the legal conditions and has substituted itself with the PPP-parliamentarians.

With the ouster of the ARD, formed in December, 2000, from the electoral politics, the rare cooperation between the PPP and the PML-N has also come to an end. Now they will either fight against each other in the October elections or make adjustment on certain seats.

The ARD was formed in December 2000, a few days before the departure of PML-N President Nawaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia. Begum Kulsoom Nawaz had not only represented the PML-N in the ARD but pushed hard for its early formation.

However, Nawabzada Nasrullah himself has held internal elections of his Pakistan Democratic Party (PDP) and become its president unopposed. The PDP has also submitted the required documents to the election commission and will apply for the poll symbol accordingly.

Similarly, the six smaller parties forming part of the NA have also not held their internal elections nor submitted documents to the election commission as required under the law. The alliance formed with official support has died an unceremonious death even before it could create any mark on the national politics.

The GDA, which was formed during the tenure of the second Nawaz Sharif Government with Dr Tahirul Qadri as its first Chairman, became irrelevant politically after the PPP said goodbye to it a long time ago. It would have been of no consequence had it even met the legal requirements and contested the forthcoming elections.

So far, only two multi-party alliances, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and Sindh Democratic Alliance (SDA), have qualified for the upcoming elections. They will get the election symbols.

In the last general election held in 1997, only one alliance, Muttahida Deeni Mahaz, comprising religious parties, had qualified to contest the polls.

In a letter written to the Chief Election Commissioner, she said, “the PPP under my leadership contested the last four general elections with the arrow symbol. This symbol is associated with the PPP and considered the partycopyright”

Appealing to the Chief Election Commissioner for justice she wrote: “I may mention here that when justice was perverted during the Nawaz regime, Chief Election Commissioner Justice Qadeer refused to disqualify me holding that I was entitled to be considered innocent until the appeal process was exhausted. It is my prayer that the precedent set by Justice Qadeer is sympathetically considered by the Election Commission”.

Benazir also apprised the CEC of the government efforts to manipulate the elections by pre-poll rigging, saying: “The PPP has written to Your Lordship about the instances where intelligence officers, officials of the provincial government and others contacted ticket aspirants of PPP, asking them to switch sides or the regime would rig and defeat them in the elections. The same officials are making political parties and, according to the press, dealing with those earlier called corrupt to get them to help the regime in the elections. In exchange the regime allows them relief from the criminal charges and this is perversion of the judicial and electoral process.”

“The job of intelligence and officials is to establish internal security and the writ of state. These are neglected resulting in a series of devastating terror attacks including the attack on a hospital. Their job could be to infiltrate militant groups. Instead seeking infiltration of political groups, they are neglecting their core duty and endangering the well-being of our citizens and the state. Inadvertently they are facilitating the forces of terror.”

Expecting to get justice, she wrote: “I am hopeful that the courts would do justice to me and I would be able to seek relief to overcome the pre-electoral rigging decrees issued by Musharraf and his men to tamper with and sabotage the results of the forthcoming elections”. ANI

Lack of a formal invitation from the government of Pakistan and inadequate security were creating problems in the discharge of tasks of the European Union Election Observation Mission in Pakistan, head of the 174-strong EU poll monitors, John Cushnahan, told the Daily Times in an interview.

“There is as yet no agreement on whether (Pakistan) has an obligation to provide us with adequate security protection which of course causes major logistical problems for us,” he said.

Lack of a formal invitation meant that “we do not have a memorandum of understanding outlining the modalities of the operation,”Mr Cushnahan said.

However, when asked why no formal invitation was extended to the mission, he said: “obviously there is some confusion about this, but it was my clear understanding ... that our mission here will be welcomed by the highest authorities in the country and that full co-operation will be extended.”

On the question of security to the team, he said : “The security cover is crucial for the mission as it will provide them an opportunity to move independently instead of moving only to places which the government chooses. Political leaders have also raised the issue during talks with the mission.”

Asked if the EU would resort to sanctions if the poll process was found flawed, he said the job of his mission was to submit a report based on which EU would take an overall decision.

However, the EU has already cautioned it could invoke Article one of the Economic Assistance Agreement under which exports from Pakistan get substantial concessions.

Mr Cushnahan, who arrived here early this week with nine specialists to conduct pre-poll assessments, said : “I am aware that the third generation Trade and Co-operation Agreement is currently on the table in Brussels, (and) that Article one of the agreement refers to respect for human rights and democracy. It is not the role of the EU observation mission to indicate any sort of action.”

The US Government was cautioned by India that the aid given by Washington to support its war against terror in Afghanistan could be diverted to defence expenditure, sources were quoted as saying by The News.

“The Indian Government had expressed reservations that this money could be diverted to defence spending. The USA had assured the Indian Government that this money would not be spent on defence related expenditures”, the sources said.

Following the Indian objections, Washington had strictly told Islamabad to spend that money only on projects of social development.

“Now the US authorities seem dissatisfied with the use of this money and want to confirm that it was not used on defence”, it said, adding the US got reports that some of it had been diverted to boost defence preparedness in the continuing standoff with India.

“It was on Indian complaints that Pakistan had diverted the money that the USA had decided to send a high-level audit team. Islamabad will find it very uncomfortable to open all its books to US accountants”, it quoted Pakistani officials as saying.

There is no doubt that members of the Sharif family cannot return to the country till the completion of the 10-year exile, Major-Gen Rashid Qureshi, spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf, told the state television in an interview yesterday.

He said the Sharif family went out of Pakistan in 2000 on its own and under an arrangement for which the Saudi Government, which provided refuge to them, was also a party.

The Saudi Government, too, would not allow the Sharifs to leave Jeddah, where they currently lived, he said.

His clarification followed assertions by Mr Shahbaz Sharif, brother of the Nawaz Sharif, who has been appointed to head the Pakistan Muslim League (N) party, that he would return before the October general election.

The Mail said today that George Galloway, a member of parliament from Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labour Party had met the Iraqi leader at a secret underground bunker near Baghdad.

Saddam announced that “he would implement all UN resolutions on Iraq and admit weapons inspectors without hindrance’’, the paper said, although it did not quote the pledge directly.

It said Saddam had asked for better ties with Britain.

“We don’t know why you turned against us more than any other European country,’’ it quoted Saddam as saying.

Washington: The USA has said there would be no let-up in its resolve to bring down the Saddam Hussein regime and assured Iraqi opposition that Washington was committed to back a democratic government in Baghdad.

The US Vice-President Dick Cheney, speaking by video hookup from his vacation home in Wyoming yesterday, said the administration was committed to ousting Hussein and supporting a democratic and multiethnic government that would abandon Hussein’s totalitarian ways.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said a change of regime in Baghdad was necessary and the USA would support the emergence of a democratic government similar to the one installed in Afghanistan.

Both Cheney and Rumsfeld have assured the Iraqi opposition of their support and them to unite against Saddam Hussein.

The Kathmandu Post quoted residents of the southwestern city of Napalgunj as saying that the UFO would target people sleeping on their terraces and roofs to escape the summer heat.

“Sahim Khan, 55, was sleeping peacefully on the terrace of her house when the fireball-like object flew towards her, ready to attack her,” the newspaper said, quoting a local.

“When we rushed towards Khan’s house after seeing the object, it disappeared instantly.”

Residents said the same ball of fire had come after Khan the night before.

“The women from the farming community in Indrapur village came out recently baring all at midnight and ploughed the fields to appease the God Indra,” reports the ‘Rising Nepal’.

The women locked up the gates and shut the windows of their houses with their husbands inside before baring all and ploughed the fields chanting hymns to please the rain God, the report said.