ISLAMABAD, Dec 7: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has already submitted some 1,050 complaints to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) regarding alleged rigging and violation of election code by the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) candidates, local government representatives and members of the caretaker set-up, but to no avail.

This was stated by Senator Latif Khosa while talking to reporters after a meeting of the PPP’s Election Monitoring Cell here on Friday.

The PPP senator regretted that the ECP did not take any notice of the large-scale transfers and postings which took place in Sindh and Punjab after announcement of the election schedule.

He said that party chairperson Benazir Bhutto had written several letters to the ECP and the members of the party’s Election Monitoring Cell also visited the ECP to inform it about the ongoing violations of the election rules, but the ECP remained unmoved.

He, however, said that despite the government’s alleged rigging plan, the PPP would participate in the elections. He criticised the ECP for its failure to implement its own orders.

The PPP senator alleged that the government had made a plan to manipulate the process of postal balloting and it had already arranged some three million votes.

Moreover, he alleged, that a plan had been prepared by the government to poll 100 bogus votes each in 2,500 polling stations in 108 National Assembly constituencies of Punjab.

Senator Khosa said that they had already briefed the foreign diplomats based in Islamabad about their concerns on the situation and told them that they were not expecting free and fair elections under the Musharraf regime.

He said how President Musharraf could ensure free and fair polls after removing the independent judges.

Replying to a question, the PPP senator said all options, including the polls’ boycott, were still open before the party. He said the PPP was ready to boycott the election, if all the parties took a unanimous decision to stay away from the process. He, however, expressed the hope that the PML-N would also take part in the election.

Other members of the election cell including Nazir Dhoki, Kashif Rizvi and Palwasha Behram were also present on the occasion.

Meanwhile, PPP information secretary Sherry Rehman in a statement condemned the ongoing crackdown on lawyers and students, saying that only an “unconstitutional regime could do what the Musharraf regime had been doing against the citizens, both before and after November 3 martial law.”

Ms Rehman demanded immediate withdrawal of cases against students, lawyers and other civil society members. She also called for the release of all those arrested during the protests in the past one month.

“The entire nation has rejected the PCO and the unconstitutional order of November 3. Any steps taken under these acts stand illegal.

It is most deplorable that the state itself is indulging in illegal acts and has launched an armed operation against its own citizens who pay taxes to run the expenses of the state,” she added.