LAHORE, March 28: Expressing its reservations regarding the procedure adopted for delimitation of constituencies, the Lahore coordination committee of the Pakistan People’s Party demanded on Thursday that the Election Commission should repeat the exercise in consultation with the political parties.

A meeting of the LCC held here on Thursday with former federal minister Khalid Khan Kharal in the chair alleged that state institutions like the National Reconstruction Bureau and the National Database and Registration Authority had interfered to the advantage of government’s “favourites.”

“It is felt that the methods and modalities adopted have adversely affected the transparency of the process.”

The meeting noted that the process had been completed without reference to ‘natural boundaries’ or administrative units and reliance had been placed on biradari to such an extent that even union council boundaries had been disregarded. In Lahore, areas like Model Town and Iqbal Town had been partitioned to ‘help’ the desired candidates.

Demanding that the Election Commission ensure that the NRB and government departments did not influence the delimitations, it said the commission should take up the process afresh exercising its discretion in consultation with the political parties.

Regretting that the referendum issue had been raised at the launch of election process, the meeting pointed out that the 1973 constitution did not provide this method for the election of the president.

A referendum could only be used for “settling national issues and that too through the parliament.” In the absence of a parliament, any move to introduce referendum would be unconstitutional and unacceptable to the people, it warned.

The committee also condemned the “government-inspired” efforts in the form of opinion polls conducted by the South Asia Opinion Alert. “If the so-called contents of the opinion polls are correct then the government should allow free, fair and transparent elections by permitting Benazir Bhutto and other political leaders to return the country and participate in the elections.”

It also challenged President Gen Pervez Musharraf to participate in the election after resigning from his army office to test his popularity.

The committee also condemned the government for not allowing the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy to hold a public meeting on March 23 at Mochi Gate. It paid tributes to the workers who had courted arrest on the occasion.

It expressed grief on the death of former chief of army staff and PPP secretary general, Gen Tikka Khan. The meeting praised his services for the country and the party.

The meeting was also attended by PPP’s Punjab president Qasim Zia, former minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar, Munir Ahmad Khan, Altaf Qureshi, Rana Aftab Ahmad, Mian Misbahur Rahman, and Rai Ejaz Ahmad.

JOINS PPP: Ahmad Fareed Maneka, the brother of former MPA from Pakpattan, Gohar Fareed Maneka, joined the PPP at a ceremony here.