19 July 2004	Monday	01 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

MITHI, July 18: People's Party Parliamentarians' candidate for NA-229 Tharparkar Mahesh Kumar Malani has alleged that government vehicles are being used in the election campaign of his rival aspirant, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz.

Speaking at a news conference here on Sunday, he was sceptical about fairness of the by-election and alleged that the Sindh chief minister was taking part in the election campaign of Mr Aziz.

He demanded that the by-election should be held under the supervision of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and residents of Thar, who were government employees in their native district, should be assigned election duty.

He said that the PPP was the biggest political party, representing the poor, labourers, minorities, workers and women, adding that he would win the election if people were allowed to cast their votes of their own will and without coercion.

Mr Malani thanked PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and the party high command for reposing confidence in him by selecting him to contest the election against Mr Aziz. He said that he would not withdraw from the contest under anybody's pressure. However, he added, if his party leadership ordered him to do so, he would not hesitate to comply with the party decision.

WITHDRAWAL: Meanwhile, Sindh National Party candidate for NA-229 Sohail David on Saturday withdrew from the contest for the seat in favour of Mr Aziz. Speaking at a news conference at the circuit house here, SNP general-secretary Dilshad Bhutto said that the decision to withdraw from the by-polls had been taken after a recent meeting of Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim with party chairman Amir Bhambhro and other leaders.

Replying to a question, he denied that the SNP had withdrawn from the by-election under a deal with the chief minister. Mr David was also present on the occasion.