March 17, 2006	Friday	Safar 16, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, March 16: The appointment of the new chief election commissioner (CEC) by President Pervez Musharraf again exposed the differences in the opposition ranks on Thursday, as they failed to take a united stand on the issue.

On the one hand, People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) seems reluctant to condemn or criticize the appointment of Justice (retd) Qazi Mohammad Farooq as the CEC, on the other Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) openly criticize his appointment.

“Gen Musharraf has laid the foundations of pre-poll rigging before the next general election by appointing the CEC on his own,” said the ARD secretary-general, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, in a statement.

Mr Jhagra is also secretary-general of PML-N but he issued this statement in his capacity as the ARD secretary-general. He termed the CEC’s appointment a negation of the concept of free, fair and transparent polls. He said the ARD leaders would discuss the issue in their next meeting.

When PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar was contacted for his comments, he said his party did not see the CEC’s appointment as a step towards pre-poll rigging. “We will not condemn the CEC’s appointment, though he has been appointed without consulting us,” Mr Babar said, adding, “As far as Justice (retd) Qazi Mohammad Farooq is concerned, he is a man of integrity.”

He said the opposition parties had presented a 12-point agenda for free and fair polls and one of the points was that the CEC should be appointed in consultation with the opposition parties, which had not happened. He said the important issue was that the Election Commission should be allowed to function independently.

The issue of the new CEC was also raised in the Senate by PML-N parliamentary leader Ishaq Dar when he said that the law minister had issued a wrong statement that the government had consulted the opposition parties prior to the appointment of the CEC, but the latter did not cooperate with the government on the issue.

He said it was absolutely wrong that the government had asked the opposition to suggest the name of the chief election commissioner.

Mr Dar said the government should have consulted the opposition before appointing Justice Farooq.

Though Mr Dar did not criticize Justice Farooq as a person, ANP Senator Ilyas Bilour, another opposition member, welcomed his appointment, saying that he was an honest man. Moreover, he said, it was good that a person from NWFP had been elevated to an important position.

Mr Dar’s assertion that the law minister was wrong to say that the government had asked the opposition to suggest the name of the CEC also proved lack of coordination on the part of the ARD, as PPP Secretary-General Raja Pervez Ashraf had confirmed that the government had asked the opposition parties to suggest names for the new CEC.

Mr Ashraf had stated that the opposition believed that without making the Election Commission independent and powerful, there would be no use of suggesting the names.

He said that in the present setup, no person could act independently as the chief election commissioner.