ISLAMABAD, April 6: President of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Makhdoom Amin Fahim and chairman of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Raja Zafarul Haq on Thursday told US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher that opposition parties could boycott the next elections if former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif were barred from the process.

Talking to a group of reporters after an hour-long breakfast meeting with Mr Boucher at the US Embassy here, the leaders of the two major component parties of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) said that they had told the US official that Ms Bhutto’s and Mr Sharif’s return was a prerequisite for free and fair polls in the country.

“Stopping the heads of the two most popular parties from taking part in the polls will be considered as a form of rigging,” said Mr Haq, adding that opposition parties could boycott the elections in such a situation. He said the US official had been told that the Election Commission had no role, as was evident from the recently-held local government elections.

He said that although the state machinery had been used in all these elections, the Election Commission itself had remained unmoved. He alleged that the role of the chief election commissioner had been “marginalised”.

Mr Haq said that they had also told Mr Boucher that a neutral caretaker set-up was necessary for holding free and fair elections.

He said that members of the caretaker set-up should not be allowed to participate in the elections.

The opposition leaders said that they had impressed upon the US assistant secretary of state the need for free and fair elections under an independent Election Commission in which all political parties and all leaders were allowed to participate in a level playing field.

They also emphasised that a president in uniform was a negation of democracy and not acceptable to opposition parties.

They said that opposition parties believed that Pakistan was a federation whose future was interlinked to respect for the Constitution, parliamentary democracy and keeping the army out of politics.