LAHORE, Nov 2: The Punjab government has started the process of pre-poll rigging by constituting an “exclusive wing” of the National Accountability Bureau for the province, alleges Babar Awan of the PPP.

At a press conference here on Thursday, he claimed that such a wing did not exist in any other unit of the federation; it was exclusively meant for hounding politicians and polling staff in Punjab. It was a clear-cut violation of the authority of the Chief Election Commission, the Political Parties Act, the Election Order 2002 and the Constitution, he said.

The wing, headed by former home secretary Hasan Wasim Afzal, had already started calling for lists of potential election staff and lower judiciary — an act tantamount to harassing them. Normally, the staff from the education and social welfare departments and temporary staff hired by the election commission was involved in the election process, but the wing was currently collecting lists of all of them.

Mr Babar, who was flanked by Naveed Chaudhry, a central leader of the party, requested the election commissioner, the chief justice, international observers, the community and the donors to take stock of “pre-poll rigging”.

He said there was no doubt about the fact that the NAB was the government’s political wing having 31 people, seven of them federal ministers. The ministers were first held accountable by the NAB on various charges and then let off the hook to help form the Jamali government.

“The Punjab government now wants to replicate the process in the province. It is not even waiting for polls to take place and rather trying to pre-empt the outcome of the elections,” he alleged.

The PPP leader further said “the article 219 of the constitution charges the chief election to arrange and hold polls in free and fair manner. In order to achieve that, it must stop political activities of President Pervez Musharraf who had recently been presiding over a PML meeting and pleading for votes.

He is doing so in sheer violation of his office and the constitution. And the CEC is duty-bound to check him,” he claimed.

Mr Babar also warned the MMA against playing into the hands of the president by resigning from the assemblies. The assemblies still have a possible life of 13 months and the president can easily hold the by-elections and bring people of his choice in his electoral college. “This is a trap he is laying for the opposition and no one should walk into it. The MMA is threatening to walk into this trap which it must avoid.”

He claimed that Benazir Bhutto had a constitutional right to contest elections for any slot — be it MNA’s, prime minister’s or president’s. She would return before elections come what may.

About the references against Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari, he said, they had already been cleared in seven of the 12 cases. So there was no bar either on the party chairperson’s return or contesting elections, he insisted.

He said the only wrong the two did was staying away from court and the Supreme Court had already declared that a punishment in absentia did not hold any legal validity.