October 1, 2002	Tuesday	Rajab 23, 1423

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LAHORE, Sept 30: The PML-N votebank is not only intact but has swelled despite the banishment of the Sharif family, a party leader said at a news conference here on Monday.

Provincial secretary-general Khwaja Saad Rafiq said the rejection of nomination papers of Mian Shahbaz Sharif and Begum Kulsoom Nawaz had angered the electorate and now they would retaliate by defeating the bullet —- a euphemism for the military regime —- with ballot on Oct 10.

The news conference was held after a meeting of all NA and provincial candidates of the party contesting on Lahore seats. They reviewed the situation in each constituency and worked out a strategy to defeat the adversaries belonging to the PML-QA.

Former foreign secretary-general Akram Zaki, who is also a candidate from NA-125, and provincial information secretary Zaeem Qadri were also present.

Saad said people wanted the change of government and they would express their desire through vote on the day of elections.

The PML-N, he said, was receiving support from voters and the party believed that it would win all the eight NA seats on which it had put up its candidates in Lahore after making adjustments on the other four.

The participants decided to hold one major public meeting in every NA constituency of the provincial metropolis. The first meeting would be held on Oct 2 and the last one on Oct 8.

Saad reiterated the allegation that the regime was bent upon hijacking the elections and it was for this reason that the polling scheme had not been reviewed despite complaints by his party. Establishment of as many as 12 polling stations in one building, and failure of the relevant authorities to provide the PML-N a polling scheme despite several reminders, spoke volumes of the designs of the regime and its determination to get desired results at all costs.

Saad said his party would be filing a petition before a court on Tuesday against this matter.

Akram Zaki said through ballot the electorate would give their verdict whether they would like to see Pakistan an Islamic welfare state, as envisioned by the Quaid-i-Azam, or a secular state, as being moulded by the present rulers.

Also, he said, voters would speak out whether the country should have a federal parliamentary system in which powers rested with the elected representatives, or a presidential system —- as in vogue now —- when the authority vested in one person and that, too, a military dictator.

With the concentration of all powers by Gen Musharraf, Akram Zaki said, a sense of deprivation among provinces was deepening and threat to the country’s security heightening.

He was critical of the regime for first shelving as unnecessary all major projects launched by the Sharif government and then reviving them all and giving an impression as if they had been conceived by the present rulers.

He dismissed as absurd his rival Humayun Akhtar Khan’s assertion that the PML-N candidate was an imported one. He said Humayun himself had been changing seats in Lahore and then was sent to Rahim Yar Khan. His candidacy from Lahore for the 2002 elections showed that he was an imported candidate and not him (Zaki).