ISLAMABAD, July 11: PPP leader Mian Raza Rabbani has criticized what he termed the acting Chief Election Commissioner's support to the participation of the prime minister and chief ministers of Sindh and Punjab in the election campaign of PML candidate Shaukat Aziz.

In his rejoinder to the acting CEC, Mr Rabbani said: "It is a matter of concern that the acting CEC has abetted the prime minister and the chief minister of the Punjab and Sindh to continue with the violation of the provision of the Political Parties Order 2002."

He said the acting CEC had observed that the premier and chief ministers could continue to campaign for Senator Aziz as the central and provincial presidents of the PML, respectively, while holding their elected public office.

Mr Rabbani, who is also the leader of the Democratic Alliance parliamentary group in the Senate, has mentioned Section 9 of the Political Parties Order 2002, which states that the holder of an elected public office shall not hold a party office and if the time of his assumption of such office he holds a party office, he shall relinquish the party office before entering upon such office.

Elected public office in the said section is defined to mean amongst others the prime minister, chief minister and federal ministers, he added. "In terms of Article 217 of the Constitution the Chief Justice of Pakistan is requested to consider the appointment of another Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan to act as the Acting CEC," Senator Rabbani stated in the rejoinder.