Change in presidential election rules illegal, says PPP
By Amir Wasim
ISLAMABAD, Sept 17: Rejecting a change made in the Presidential Election Rules by the Election Commission of Pakistan, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Monday termed it “unconstitutional and illegal” and accused the commission of tampering with the Constitution.
In a statement issued here on Monday, PPP spokesman Farhatullah Khan Babar said the amendment amounted to “rigging the forthcoming presidential elections”, thereby paving the way for far-reaching political and constitutional repercussions.
Through a notification issued on September 10, but not officially announced till now, the ECP changed the rules, barring the returning officer from rejecting nomination papers of a candidate under Article 63 of the Constitution pertaining to eligibility for a member of parliament and President of Pakistan. The Article 63 deals with the disqualification of a candidate.
Mr Babar said that because Gen Musharraf did not qualify for contesting the office of the president, he prevailed upon the ECP to “arbitrarily and illegally tamper with the Constitution of Pakistan.”
In fact, he said, the ECP’s attempt to arbitrarily amend the Constitution amounted to “subversion of the Constitution”.
Mr Babar said that instead of negotiating a constitutional package that could lead the country to stability, security and democracy, Gen Musharraf had decided to consolidate his rule through what he called illegal and unconstitutional means.
He said the move could only deepen the crisis and pave the way for a fresh confrontation with the superior judiciary and the people of Pakistan.
The PPP spokesman said that the move had raised serious doubts about the impartiality of the ECP and whether it could hold fair and transparent elections. He claimed that the ECP had now become a party which wanted to promote the presidency’s partisan political agenda.
Mr Babar said the recently-held multi-party conference in London had called for the reconstitution of the ECP.
“Now, the PPP demands that the amendments made to the election rules by the ECP be immediately withdrawn,” he said.
In a separate statement, PPP’s Information Secretary Sherry Rehman said that the government could twist and bend rules the way it liked, but there was no basis, constitutional or otherwise, for Gen Musharraf to be elected from current assemblies.
Ms Rehman said that all democratic forces would reject such a move and such circumstances had exposed the ECP as an institution that was unwilling to stand firm to its constitutional mandate and to hold all contestants equal before the law.
“Such illegal acts of the government and the ECP will pave the way for more chaos and instability in the country,” she said.
“No democrat can accept bona fides of an institution that facilitates only those who control the state resources through the barrel of the gun,” the PPP leader said.
