Soomro rules out early election

Published October 21, 2006

TORONTO, Oct 20: Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro has ruled out the possibility of early election in Pakistan and said polls will be held only after completion of assemblies’ tenure.

“It’s after many decades that the assemblies would be completing their tenure in year 2007,” he said here on Thursday.

Talking to Dawn at an Iftar party held for the visiting Pakistani parliamentary delegation by Consul General Ghalib Iqbal, Mr Soomro said “don’t pay any attention to speculation or rumours about early election”.

“President Gen Pervez Musharraf has made it very clear that elections would be held on due dates,” he said.

Mr Soomro is on an official visit to Canada as head of the six-member delegation.

While in Ottawa on Wednesday, he held talks with the chairman of the Canadian Senate and the speaker of the House of Commons and exchanged views with them on matters of mutual interest.

In Toronto, the Pakistani delegation visited the Ontario Legislative Assembly on Thursday and met its speaker and a number of provincial legislators.

Later, the delegation called on Dalton McGuinty, the head of the provincial Ontario government.

After their meeting, a government official told newsmen that McGuinty would visit Pakistan in January next.

The official said that a minister and a number of leading businessmen would accompany McGuinty.

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