March 27, 2002	Wednesday	Muharram 12, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, March 26: Chief Election Commissioner Irshad Hasan Khan said on Tuesday that Election Commission was the only authority to disqualify any person from contesting polls.

Speaking at a press conference, the CEC said the “delicate” task of delimitation was undertaken by the Election Commission alone.

To a question that President Gen Pervez Musharraf had said that he would not allow Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to contest polls, the CEC said that it was the domain of the Election Commission but only when the scrutiny of nomination papers was under way. He, however, refused to make further comments and advised the questioner not to get emotional.

To another question about the condition of identity cards, the CEC avoided offering any comment and only said that his office was fully concentrating on the delimitation of the constituencies, which to him, was a highly delicate issue.

About holding of referendum, Justice Irshad said that he had not been intimated of the government plans for holding presidential referendum.

He said he and other members of the Election Commission were only reading about it (referendum) in the newspapers. “As far as we are concerned, we have not been intimated of any such plan,” he said.

When asked about the role of NRB in delimitation, the CEC replied “zero, zero, and zero”, and called off the press conference.