February 22, 2008	Friday	Safar 14, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Feb 21: The Pakistan People’s Party on Thursday demanded the formation of a judicial commission to investigate complaints of vote-rigging.

The commission should examine allegations of electoral fraud and rigging in Karachi and elsewhere in Sindh, senior PPP official Lateef Khosa told a news conference.

“Rigging was committed in targeted constituencies” by candidates backing President Pervez Musharraf, he said.

Mr Khosa showed journalists ballot papers he said were already stamped in favour of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) candidates in Karachi.

The PPP leader said his workers seized thousands of such ballot papers.

He also said voting was tainted in the Shikarpur district where an important PPP candidate, Aftab Shahban Mirani, was defeated.

Mr Mirani, who joined

Mr Khosa at the news conference, alleged that pro-government activists abducted an election officer and seized control of polling stations, in order to put fake votes in the ballot boxes.

“We are not asking for the reversal of the whole exercise. We want re-election in some selective constituencies in the Sindh province,” he said.—AFP