LAHORE, July 1: Millat Party chief Farooq Leghari said on Monday free and fair elections were the need of the hour. Like 1977, he said, the masses would reject the results if there was rigging.

He also made it clear that no one but the parliament was authorized to amend the basic law of the country. The Constitution, he said, itself laid down the method to amend it.

Speaking at a press conference here, he said free and fair polls were possible under military rulers. The armed forces, he sad, would be deployed on borders even during October elections. If any one attempted to use the police for rigging the polls, he warned the people could get violent.

He said rigging would be counter productive and the whole system would collapse because of it as had happened in 1977 when administration interfered with the results of no more than 18 seats.

However, he said, the chances of rigging in the presence of international monitors, to be invited by the government from various democratic countries on the occasion, were slim.

Without saying anything about the incumbents, he said the election should comprise people who enjoyed trust of all quarters.

While saying only parliament had the authority to amend the Constitution, Mr Leghari, added that the country was passing through an extraordinary, extra-legal and extra-Constitutional era. The Supreme Court, he pointed out, had allowed an individual to amend the basic law, subject to certain conditions.

He said the Millat Party was working for a realistic framework to end this era and restore the Constitution. It did not want to any thing that could delay this.

About the proposed Constitutional amendments package announced recently by the government, he said his party would give its detailed comments after consulting other parties in the National Alliance. Some of the proposals in the package, he said, were not to the party’s liking.

Mr Leghari said the Alliance would expand before the polls as its constituents were holding talks with other parties.

He clarified that the Faisalabad convention of the Alliance had been held within boundary walls and had not violated the ban on political activities. Other parties, especially religious parties, had said, had also held similar meetings.

Earlier, Pakistan Qaumi Tehrik chairman Muhammad Saeed Qadri and JUP (Sawad-i-Azam) president Saeed Zawwar announced their decision to merge their respective parties with the Millat Party.