July 03, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 17, 1428

LAHORE, July 2: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has accused the Punjab government of using district administration and police for collecting data of “suitable candidates” to be pitched by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) against opposition hopefuls in the forthcoming elections.

This was alleged by Punjab PPP president Shah Mahmood Qureshi at a news conference after a meeting of the party’s district information secretaries on Monday.

He claimed that the Punjab government had deputed district coordination officers (DCOs) and superintendents of police (SPs) to convince the disgruntled members of the ruling party for getting their support in the polls as the rulers feared that they could pose a serious threat to the PML-Q’s electoral performance.

He demanded that the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) should take action against the officials found involved in mustering support for the ruling party.

He said the elections could not be delayed on the pretext of relief activities in the flood-hit areas. He said the PPP would strongly resist any such move with the support of other opposition parties.

He said the district information secretaries had been asked to start a mass contact drive and work on disgruntled members of the ruling party for bringing them into the PPP’s fold.

Qureshi said the ruling PML-Q was facing serious differences in its ranks and some of its leaders planned to form a new faction.

He said the PPP had decided to set up relief camps in all districts of Punjab to collect aid for the people of the flood-hit areas of Sindh and Balochistan. He said no member of the Balochistan government, whether from the PML-Q or the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, had visited the flood hit areas.

He said PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto was the only candidate of the party for the office of prime minister. He said the PPP did not need to strike any deal with the government as it enjoyed support of the masses.