December 03, 2007	Monday	Ziqa'ad 22, 1428

NOWSHERA, Dec 2: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad has said that his party is likely to take the final decision about a poll boycott in three days. “It is not my personal decision. The party shoora has to take such crucial decisions,” he told JI workers here on Sunday.

He said the workers would be taken into confidence on the issue.

He said he would meet the leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Awami National Party (ANP) to convince them to boycott the elections.

He said he would meet Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) chief Mian Nawaz Sharif on Monday to discuss PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s proposal of holding an ‘All Parties’ Conference’.

The JI chief has filed nomination papers for the National Assembly from NA-5, Nowshera-I, against Tariq Hamid Khattak of the ANP and Tariq Khattak of the PPP.

“Our demands are restoration of the judges of the superior courts who refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitution Order and formation of an independent caretaker government to hold free and fair elections without the involvement of the secret agencies,” he said.

He said the JI and other like-minded political forces did not expect free and fair elections under the present caretaker set-up. He alleged that the intelligence agencies were planning large-scale rigging in the elections.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad said that if the JI boycotted the polls, its workers would launch a protest movement.

The JI chief said the unconstitutional government of President Pervez Musharraf would collapse in a few days if the PPP, the ANP and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam boycotted the elections.