LAHORE, Aug 9: Munir Ahmad Khan of the Pakistan Peoples Party on Friday wrote a letter to the chief election commissioner, exposing what he called a pre-poll rigging plan.

In the Punjab, the Musharraf government had planned to support the king’s party and provincial ministers had been allocated 34 districts, the letter said. Copies of the letter had also been sent to the Common Wealth secretary-general and chief election observer of the European Union at Islamabad.

The ministers had been assigned different duties to ensure the success of government-sponsored candidates and the Punjab chief secretary would monitor the whole operation. The district Nazimeen and district coordination officers had been directed to obey the directions of the ministers and the chief secretary.

The letter also detailed district-wise allocation and maintained that education minister Akhtar Saeed had been told to look after Multan, Muzaffargarh, Khanewal and Rajanpur districts. Similarly, local government minister Hamid Saeed Akhtar would be overseeing Gujranawala, Sialkot, Narowal and Mandi Bahauddin districts.

Auqaf minister Mufti Ghulam Sarwar had been given Lahore, Kasur and Vehari districts. Agriculture minister Khurshid Zaman Qureshi had been assigned Lodhran, Bahawalnagar, Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur. C&W minister Mohammad Tariq would be overseeing Okara, Sahiwal and Pakpattan.

Revenue minister Malik Mohammad Aslam had been told to ensure results in Sargodha, Mianwali, Bhakkar and Khushab whereas social welfare minister Shaheen Attiqur Rehman would visit Jhelum, Chakwal and Attock for results. Health minister Dr Mahmood Ahmad would go to Toba Tek Singh, Faisalabad and Jhang.

Law minister Rana Ejaz Ahmad would ensure results in Gujrat, Sheikhupura and Hafizabad and finance minister Tariq Hameed would work in Layyah, D G Khan and Rawalpindi districts.

These ministers had been assigned the duties to support candidates of the king’s party, pressure strong candidates to join the party, ensure the use of development funds through the government-sponsored candidates, ensure the working of police in the area for these candidates and to withdraw candidates in favour of official candidates.

The letter further alleged that the Punjab chief secretary was presiding over meetings of political people in all the districts and pressuring district Nazimeen to join or cooperate with these candidates. One example was the Sargodha district Nazim who refused to cooperate and was summoned by the chief secretary in Islamabad.

The chief secretary was so involved that he directed his family to publicly announce joining the PML-Q.

In the light of the above submissions, the ARD felt that the dream of fair elections would not come true if the ministers and the chief secretary were not stopped. It was, therefore, requested that directions be issued to them to stop political activities. The chief secretary may be suspended to ensure fair elections and the ministers be asked to resign if they were interested in political activities.