LARKANA/KARACHI, Sept 1: Election authorities on Sunday rejected nomination papers of former prime minister and PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto filed from Karachi and Larkana.

The returning officer in Larkana, Abdul Ghani Soomro, rejected the PPP chairperson’s papers for NA-204 (Larkana-I) on the ground that she was convicted in a NAB case.

In Karachi, the provincial election commissioner rejected the PPP chairperson’s papers for the reserved seat for women for the same reason.

Ms Bhutto’s papers for NA-207 (Larkana-III) have already been rejected.

Strict security measures were adopted at both the places, with a large number of policemen deployed to meet any untoward incident.

The courtroom in Larkana was jampacked and its stage was occupied by the policemen when returning officer Abdul Ghani Soomro announced the decision.

He said Ms Bhutto had been convicted and given a three-year sentence under section 31-A of the NAB Ordinance by the accountability court of Rawalpindi / Islamabad in a reference 23/2000 on July 9, 2002.

The PPP chairperson was represented by a Farooq H. Naik, Asif Soomro and Ayaz Soomro.

Seven men had filed objections against the candidature of Ms Bhutto, citing dismissal of her government and her alleged anti-state activities as reasons for seeking rejection of her papers. However, the returning officer, in his order, rejected these two grounds.

The announcement rejecting the nomination papers angered many party activists present on the occasion who chanted slogans of Ya Allah ya Rasool, Benazir Beqasoor. An activist, Zafar Mirani, fainted in the heated atmosphere.

After coming out of the court, the activists — led by Nisar Khuhro, Munawwar Abbasi and others — marched through the main roads of the Larkana city which were already giving a deserted look in view of the strike call given by the PPP against the rejection of Ms Bhutto’s nomination papers for NA-207 (Larkana-III). In Karachi, the decision was announced amid tight security and anti-regime protest by a group of emotionally-charged supporters.

Ms Bhutto’s exit from the current electoral process became obvious when the provincial election commissioner, Ahmed Ali Halepoto, announced: “She is convicted, that is why I am rejecting her (Ms Bhutto’s) nominations”. Mr Halepoto declined to elaborate.

The PPP will contest these rejections and its attention was also focused on Ms Bhutto’s constitutional petition challenging the Legal Framework Order 2002 and other amendments. The petition is fixed for Sept 11.

About 3pm when Mr Halepoto announced the rejection in a room crowded by media, proposer of Ms Bhutto for the reserved seat, Munawwar Suhrawardy, started raising slogans and alleged that it was an unjust and mala fide decision.

He claimed that Radio Pakistan had in its 2pm bulletin announced that Ms Bhutto’s papers for the reserved seat had been rejected. He was joined by other supporters in slogan-chanting against the regime. The election commission staff had to intervene to prevent the charged situation from getting out of control and asked the PPP men and women to leave the committee room where nominations were being scrutinized.

The provincial election commissioner and other officials rejected the allegation that they had leaked what was termed a manipulated decision.

However, when Radio Pakistan’s news section at Karachi was contacted by Dawn to verify the PPP allegation, its advice was to contact the Islamabad newsroom because no one had filed any such story from Karachi for the 2pm newscast.

At the outset when the election commission called for Ms Bhutto’s scrutiny, which was on number 87, Barrister Kamal Azfar and advocate Abubakar Zardari submitted they had an application for postponing the scrutiny for the day to enable Ms Bhutto’s attorney Farooq H. Naik to make submissions. The application was moved on behalf of Mr Suhrawardy.