October 28, 2007	Sunday	Shawwal 15, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Oct 27: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has welcomed the resolution adopted by the European Union (EU) parliament condemning the attack on October 19 rally and urging a return to democracy by holding free, fair and transparent elections in Pakistan.

PPP spokesperson Farhatullah Khan Babar, in a statement issued here on Saturday, said that militancy could not be contained without civil rule.

Mr Babar regretted that the elections in Pakistan had almost always been stolen by the state’s agencies to perpetuate their stranglehold on power.

He said elections would not be fair unless urgent and credible measures were taken to bring to end the involvement of agencies in it. He recalled that a petition against the blatant and publicly acknowledged involvement of an intelligence agency in the formation of anti-PPP political group in 1990 election was already pending before the Supreme Court.

He said the case had been pending for the past 10 years and urged that it be taken up urgently so as to bring the agencies under the ambit of law.

The PPP spokesperson recalled that early this week the pre- election assessment mission of the National Democratic Institute had also demanded an end to the role of intelligence agencies in manipulating the elections.