ISLAMABAD, Aug 24: Secretary-General of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and MNA Raja Pervez Ashraf has said the option to resign from the assemblies is still open and the opposition parties can consider this move on the basis of massive rigging committed by the government in the local government elections.

Speaking at a news conference with the senior vice-president, Mir Baz Mohammad Khetran, and Nazir Dhoki here on Wednesday, Mr Ashraf said the assemblies had become a rubber stamp to fulfil the agenda of Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Quoting a recent interview of Gen Musharraf, the PPP MNA said it seemed that the general intended to use parliament to strengthen his hold on power and to convert the present parliamentary system into the presidential system.

Mr Ashraf said Gen Musharraf was also the chief of the army staff and, therefore, he should not interfere in political matters. He alleged that during the first phase of local bodies polls, state machinery was used and even government officials were seen stamping the ballot papers. He alleged that in some polling stations in Karachi, the staff even stamped the ballot papers more than the total number of registered voters. Later, he said, these excessive ballot papers were thrown into drains.

He alleged that army was being deployed in the second phase of elections only on those polling stations where opposition had a majority. He said even the government ministers, including Dr Sher Afgan, Jahangir Tareen and Awais Leghari were making hue and cry over the rigging in the elections.

Mir Baz Khetran said the personnel of the Frontier Constabulary had been given a free hand in Balochistan during the first phase of polls and they even stopped the people from casting votes at gunpoint. He, however, claimed that despite full use of state machinery, the PPP-backed candidates had managed to win 43 out of a total 96 union council seats in Barkhan district of the province.

Mr Khetran regretted that the Election Commission did not play any role in the whole electoral exercise and it preferred to keep silence over the government’s tactics of rigging the polls. He also showed copies of the results, signed by the election officials, which were later changed in favour of the government- backed candidates.

Nazir Dhoki said the election commission was not independent and taking dictation from the army. He said the PPP would apprise the diplomats based in Islamabad about the role of the election commission.

Meanwhile, PML-N information secretary Siddiqul Farooque issued the second part of the fact-sheet on the pre-poll rigging by the government.

Mr Farooque said Gen Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Punjab and Sindh chief ministers and other ministers and ruling party members had been openly violating the election code of conduct. He said Gen Musharraf had announced special grant of Rs100 million for Rawalpindi Division on August 19 for the benefit of ruling alliance contestants. On August 23, he said Gen Musharraf called Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Mushahid Hussain to the Army House and exhorted them to remove differences among the ruling factions and consensus with regard to Nazims and Naib Nazims.

He said Sindh Minister Altaf Hussain Unnar availed the official protocol to visit 25 cities, and addressed public meetings to influence the election process. He said over 4,236 complaints of rigging were sent to the Election Commission in the first phase. However, instead of noting the complaints, the commission claimed that it did not receive any complaint at all.

Acting CEC Abdul Hameed Dogar claimed that the first phase polling was peaceful and impartial. As a matter of fact 17 persons were killed and 582 more injured on August 18 despite supervision by 140,000 personnel from police, rangers, army and the secret agencies.

He said the pre-poll rigging for the third phase of local elections had already been started and a three-member committee, comprising Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, National Security Council Secretary Tariq Aziz and a representative of the Intelligence Bureau, had been set up to finalize a list of favourite candidates for the posts of nazims and naib nazims in districts and Tehsils.