ISLAMABAD, Oct 29: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has expressed concern over the appointment of Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool as the Punjab governor.

“The Punjab governor should be a neutral and impartial officer who can oversee fair elections”, a party spokesman said in a statement here on Monday.

The spokesman alleged that the PPP opposed the appointment of Lt-Gen Maqbool as the governor on different counts. He said the PPP felt that a governor should be a neutral and impartial person.

He said the Punjab had majority of parliamentary seats. Elections since 1988 were consistently rigged to deny the PPP the chance to form a government in the Punjab and protect such elements, he added.

The PPP called upon the Election Commission of Pakistan as well as the military regime to substantively prove, by taking measures to assure the political parties, that the next elections would be fair.

“The measures to assure political parties of a modicum of fairness include appointment of neutral and impartial persons at important positions, besides other measures”, he added.