LAHORE, Feb 5: The Pakistan People’s Party has unveiled what it called the government’s pre-poll rigging plan which was to be presented to the US and the European delegates by the assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto.

Speaking at a news conference at the Lahore Press Club on Tuesday, former senator Sardar Latif Khosa alleged that the government had used every trick up its sleeves to manoeuvre the Feb 18 election. He said the unfair steps ranged from the mass transfers and postings of the ‘favourite’ bureaucrats to the use of official machinery and funds on campaigns of the king’s party candidates.

He said the report was to be delivered to US official Patrick Kennedy and other delegates from Europe on Dec 27, but Benazir Bhutto was assassinated before it could have been done.

He said the refusal in extension to the visas to the election observers from the International Research Institution meant that the government was bent upon rigging the polls and that, too, massively. The purpose of denying them extension to their visas was to stop them from witnessing and reporting the malpractice.

In Punjab alone, over 400 more million voters have been registered compared to the last election figures, but the government did not increase the number of polling stations. The 37,504 polling stations would not be able to cater to the new voters.

Khosa said the Election Commission of Pakistan had obtained 1.8 million postal ballots in the name of prisoners, overseas Pakistanis and government employees — all stamped in favour of the PML-Q. “These votes are going to go the PML-Q because the bureaucrats, who would be handling the process, are an extension to the government,” he added.

The government, he said, had extended the services of bureaucrats who were due to be retired in 2008 to 2011 to use them as tools. In Punjab, he added, not less than 45 bureaucrats had been re-employed “to rig the election and influence the electorate”.

He said the party had complained to the National Accountability Bureau about the misuse of authority and misconduct on the part of the Punjab government which had burdened the national exchequer by hiring the retired bureaucrats.

He said the PPP had demanded that the government revoke and rescind these transfer and postings so that all the participants in the election get a level-playing field. He said the PPP had time and again demanded that the local governments be dissolved if the government wanted a free, fair and transparent election.

In Punjab, relatives and family members of some 100 nazims were contesting and would be helped by the official machinery, having the police and resources at its disposal. He said in an atmosphere of terror, spread by the runaway suicide bombings, the turnout was expected to be very low.

“We, therefore, demand that the army be called in aid of the civil agencies to ensure law and order. I want to make it clear that we are not asking for the army to monitor the polls, but to serve as a deterrent to any incident of violence,” he said.

The ex-senator said the party feared more arrests of its workers in Sindh, where 5,000 FIRs had been registered against unknown persons for inciting violence in the wake of Benazir’s assassination. He added that the FIRs would be used for arresting the workers of the PPP which would be deprived of manpower essential for the election.

He said he had asked the People’s Lawyer Forum to file constitutional petitions with the district and sessions judges to prevent the police from arresting the workers.

He charged Pervaiz Elahi with appropriating Rs6 billion from Kifalat Fund. He said Chaudhry Ameer Husain, who had been made an acting president, stood disqualified from contesting the election but the CEC did not take any action in this regard.

He said on the PPP complaint, the CEC only restrained him from visiting Sialkot and running his election campaign. The CEC told them that they should move court if they wanted to have him disqualified.

He said Benazir Bhutto had written two letters to the CEC, asking him to stop the transfer and postings and advertisements regarding the ‘Parha Likha Punjab’.

According to him, the PPP’s demand to appoint the CEC after consultations with all the political parties was turned down because the government wanted a person who could toe its policies.