26 September 2004	Sunday	10 Shaban 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 25: The People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) has decided to boycott Oct 7 by-election on a National Assembly seat in Tharparkar to protest against the alleged partial attitude of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Irshad Hassan Khan.

The decision to boycott the election was taken by the party following the refusal of the CEC to receive a PPP delegation to inform him about the election-related complaints.

Sindh PPP President Syed Qaim Ali Shah, in a statement here on Saturday, said refusal of the CEC to meet the PPP delegation showed that the regime had once again prepared a plan to rig the by-poll on the Tharparkar seat, vacated by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

The PPP leader said the party had formally requested the CEC to receive a delegation to apprise him of the party's concern that a massive plan had been prepared to rig the forthcoming by-election. The CEC, however, refused to receive the delegation.

"If the party leaders and members of the parliament cannot even seek an interview with the CEC to apprise him of its serious concerns, there is no point in taking part in the elections which are no more than a charade," Mr Shah said.

He said in the last by-elections also the party had brought to the attention of the CEC the large-scale irregularities but he did not even acknowledge the PPP complaints.

Eventually, the party issued a white paper to expose the rigging in Shaukat Aziz's election from that constituency.

He said in the last election in NA-229, as many as 17 polling stations were changed without intimating the PPP candidate. These were the polling stations from which the party had won in the October 2002 elections. Similarly, he said, 16 new polling stations were created which affected over 13,000 votes. Besides, over 11,000 votes of the PPP were deliberately deleted from the electoral list, he added.

He said several PPP parliamentarians, including MNA Manzoor Wassan, were detained for over 20 hours in police stations. Mr Shah said even Manzoor Wassan's vehicle was impounded by the police for running the election campaign of the PPP candidate in Tharparkar. His vehicle was released after two weeks under court orders, he said.

The PPP leader said the total number of votes in the 2002 general elections were 263,061 but in 2004, intriguingly, the number of votes went down to 251,579.

The Sindh PPP president said the elections would have no legitimacy without the participation of opposition politicalparties.

He also asked the human rights bodies and organizations concerned with monitoring polls to take note of the highhandedness of the regime and its plans to rig the forthcoming elections.

It may be mentioned here that Dr Mahesh Malani, who had lost to Shaukat Aziz in Aug 18 by-election, had once again submitted his papers on the PPP ticket to contest the Oct 7 by-election against the PML-nominee Arbab Zakaullah.