DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Oct 24: Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rehman has demanded that coming elections should be held under an ‘impartial’ caretaker government and an ‘autonomous’ election commission.

Talking to Dawn, he said that President Gen Pervez Musharraf had stared running the election campaign (of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League) and asking the masses to vote for those who would elect him as president.

“This clearly proves that he (the president) wants to influence the polls,” Maulana Rehman said.

He denied that a grand opposition alliance was in the offing, saying that the ‘efforts’ being made for it ‘are not serious.’

Maulana Fazl said that the ‘major’ opposition parties were not serious in forming the alliance and the issue was mostly confined to news items.

He said that two informal meetings of the opposition parties had been held in this regard at the residence of PML (Nawaz) leader Chaudhry Nisar Ahmed.