December 14, 2007	Friday	Zilhaj 3, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Dec 13: Vice-president of Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) Syed Zafar Ali Shah Thursday announced to boycott the January 8 elections to express solidarity with the lawyers and detained judges, who refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO).

Talking to Dawn, the senior PML-N leader said he had decided to withdraw his nomination papers submitted to contest the elections on National Assembly seats, NA-49 from Islamabad and NA-55 and NA-56 from Rawalpindi.

Talking to Dawn here, he said he had taken the decision on the call of the bars and to express solidarity with Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan who had also announced to boycott the polls. The PML-N leader said he believed that there was no use of participating in the elections when the judges of the superior courts were under detention and there was no independent judiciary in the country. He said he had a very long association with the lawyers’ profession and had been a member of various bars and Pakistan Bar Council.

He, however, said he was still a member of the PML-N and would abide by the party discipline. He said it was the PML-N which took the initiative of boycotting the poll on the issue of the independence of judiciary. Therefore, he said he believed that he had not violated the party discipline by announcing the poll boycott.

Replying to a question, Mr Shah said he had not yet informed his party chief and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif about his decision. He denied that he had decided to boycott the polls after his party refused to award him ticket on any of the three seats.

The decision of Mr Shah to boycott the polls has also ended a rift over allocation of party ticket for a National Assembly constituency in Islamabad.

Besides Mr Shah, the president of the party’s Islamabad chapter, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, had also submitted the nomination papers and applications with the party for award of tickets to contest the election from NA-49 Islamabad-II constituency and were awaiting a decision from the highups.

Mr Shah had also submitted his papers from two constituencies of nearby Rawalpindi city — NA-55 and NA-56 — where former minister and a PML-Q stalwart Sheikh Rashid Ahmed is contesting the election. However, after the decision of the party to field senior party leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi against Sheikh Rashid Ahmed in NA-55 and after joining of the PML-N by former MMA MNA Hanif Abbasi, chances of Mr Shah getting party tickets for these two Pindi seats had diminished.