ISLAMABAD, Oct 9: The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) has rejected the President’s claim that the elections will be held fair and free and said the government through a pre-poll rigging plan has sought to keep major political parties out of elections by supporting a king’s party.

Commenting on the president’s speech, a PPP spokesman in a statement issued late Wednesday night dismissed the claim of Gen Pervez Musharraf that the elections on Thursday would be fair and free.

He termed the address “yet another attempt by the General to hoodwink the domestic and international public opinion, to perpetuate his illegitimate hold on power and to hide from public view the planned rigging.

“The people know too well how Gen Musharraf and the military junta has sought to queer the pitch through unprecedented pre-poll rigging by seeking to keep out major political parties and their leaders from electoral contest on the one hand and by propping up an artificial King’s Party on the other.”

The spokesman said, the anti-people and anti-democracy measures taken by the Musharraf regime were too well known to the people and could not be covered up behind “lies, innuendoes and blatant untruths”.

He said delisting of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto from the voters list; blocking her return through back-dated laws; unilaterally giving a new Constitution superseding the unanimous Constitution only to perpetuate himself in power; rewriting the civil-military equation on the terms of the ambitious generals; ridiculing and character assassinating political leaders through massive advertisement campaign; forming King’s Party and National Alliance; making unilateral changes in election laws to favour the King’s Party; pressing into service governmental machinery in support of the King’s party, and “using ISI and other security apparatus” to force candidates of anti-regime major political parties change loyalties were some of the examples of pre-poll rigging of the government.

“The PPP, however, is not deterred by the pre-poll manipulations and rigging and is taking part in the elections to expose the fraud of stealing from the people their right to choose their representatives and foisting on them the B-team of generals as pretenders to the leadership of the people.

The party also rejected the president’s claim of achievements during the past three years. The last three years have been a disaster for the country in which the civil society was robbed of its rights, the poor robbed of their livelihood and region robbed of peace and stability as both the western and eastern borders of the country were rendered unsafe as never before.

“The poverty will never be alleviated as long as bulk of the nation’s resources is spent on military armaments and palatial houses and imperial messes for the generals and education and social sector development is criminally neglected.

“The PPP also rejects the claim of the General that the law and order situation in the country had improved. It is ridiculous to make such a claim on the face of advisories issued by foreign governments asking its citizens to stay away from Pakistan for want of security.

“The PPP places no trust in the General’s promises which as shown by the experience of past three years has been no more than vague and false. The PPP has learnt to judge the General not by the promises he made but by the promises he keeps.

“Let there be no doubt or mistake in the mind of the junta that any attempt on the polls day to manipulate the will of the people to perpetuate themselves in power will be fraught with disastrous consequences for the federation and the country”, he said.