September 20, 2002	Friday	Rajab 12, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: European Union on Thursday announced it will not deploy the same number of observers it had originally planed for the forthcoming general elections due to Pakistan’s “reluctance to meet security requirements.”

In a statement on Thursday, John Cushnahan, chief observer European Union said, “Our original intention was to eventually deploy a team of around 164 observers. For a number of logistical reasons, including the initial reluctance of the Pakistan authorities to fully meet our requirements relating to security, we will unfortunately be unable to fulfil our original plan with regard to the deployment of the full compliment of short-term observers.”

It further said: “While this may be regrettable, we will ensure that it will not impact negatively on our ability to complete our full task, However, we do appreciate that the provincial authorities are cooperating with the mission in order to ensure security for the current team structure.”