KARACHI, Aug 13: The Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) conveyed on Tuesday to a visiting member of the European Union’s Electoral Observation Mission that it did not expect free and fair elections under the regime of General Pervez Musharraf.

Abul Inam, the President of the SHCBA, told Plamen Tonchev, political and legal expert of the EU mission, of the legal community’s rejection of the constitutional package announced by the government.

On transparency of the elections, he claimed that the people had seen manipulation of the ballot during the referendum and they did not expect free, fair and transparent elections under the present Chief Election Commissioner who headed the bench of the Supreme Court which provided legitimacy to the present regime. The SHCBA also demanded a neutral and impartial Chief Election Commissioner.

Mr Tonchev informed the SHCBA that the EU mission would hold meetings with leaders of political parties, NGOs and other concerned people.

He emphasized that the Mission‘s Report would reflect every thing.

Asked why the EU became active only at the time of elections, the chief observer of the Mission, who was due here on Wednesday, would be the right person to respond to such queries.