ISLAMABAD, Aug 11: The government and its law enforcement agencies are locked in last-minute discussions to give green light for the resumption of electoral campaign soon after August 14, sources close to the chief executive secretariat said on Sunday.

The government had intended to allow the start of election campaign from August 14 but the two recent terrorist attacks within a 50-mile radius of the capital city had raised doubts about the government’s ability to stick to its own deadline.

The federal capital administration also added to the restrictions under section 144 following the terrorist attack in Murree recently, making assembly of people in one place an offence and threat to public order.

None of the senior government officials contacted by Dawn on Sunday gave a firm date as to when political activities could start.

However, a close aide of President said that it made sense for the government to allow political activity only when “rules of the game” had been set, hinting that electioneering campaign will be allowed after the proposed constitutional amendments had been finalised. “That is the logical way for it to happen,” he added.

Well-placed government sources maintained that a final decision on the constitutional amendments would be reached sometime this week.

The strict security measures taken after the recent terrorist attacks had encouraged certain political quarters to doubt that the government would use these as a pretext to postpone elections.

Pakistan People’s Party media advisor Farhatullah Babar said the other day: “There is a concern in certain circles that the law and order situation may be used as an excuse to delay the elections.”

However, President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s chief spokesman and head of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi emphatically ruled out any possibility of elections being postponed owing to the law and order situation.

“There is no such thought or consideration. The government is firm on holding elections on the scheduled date,” the president’s chief spokesman stated in categorical terms when contacted by Dawn on Sunday.

Underlining the Musharraf government’s commitment to hold elections on time, he said: “There has not been a single commitment not honoured by the government so far, whether it be the local bodies elections or the government’s commitment to freedom of the Press, etc.”

Maj-Gen Qureshi discarded all speculations emanating from political quarters with utter disdain, saying: “They (politicians) perhaps cannot fathom any person telling the truth because for the last 54 years they have become accustomed to so much lies and fraud.”

The ISPR chief asserted that elections would be held in October and civilian government would be in place according to the Supreme Court ruling that gave Gen Pervez Musharraf until October, 2002, to hold the general elections.

Intelligence sources also told Dawn on Sunday that the indications they had received so far were that the government was “very firm” on holding elections on time. They believed political campaigning would also be allowed to kick off soon.