October 3, 2002	Thursday	Rajab 25, 1423

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ISLAMABAD Oct 2: Major opposition parties have failed to enter into a one-point-agenda alliance, and there are no chances of it happening before Oct 10, informed sources said.

But such an alliance could take some shape if the the “king’s party” takes the lead in the polls through official patronage, a senior political leader told Dawn.

The opposition parties, who are already complaining of massive pre-poll rigging, have been shocked by the emergence of a large number of independent candidates contesting on a common symbol of “crescent”. They are suspected of playing second fiddle to the “king’s party”.

Ghulam Murtaza Pooya, senior vice-chairman of PAT, told Dawn that although the idea of an anti-government opposition alliance has not materialized so far, things were destined to take worst turn if the administration interfered in the election process.

He said: “If this attitude of pre-poll rigging is continued on the polling day the parliament will be short-lived.”

Farhatullah Babar, a PPP spokesman, said that all the major political parties were unanimous their feeling that the elections would not be free and fair.

Information secretary of PTI, Akbar S. Babar, said that Imran Khan was in Lahore, Makhdoom Faheem in interior Sindh, Raja Zafarul Haq in Rawalpindi, and Qazi Hussain Ahmed in the Frontier, all running their own election campaigns and were unable to get together and decide on a joint action.