ISLAMABAD, Dec 16: The People’s Party Parliamentarians and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) on Saturday rejected as `baseless’ the observation of a survey conducted by the International Republican Institute (IRI) that President Pervez Musharraf was more popular than Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.

The two major opposition parties, which had earlier preferred to keep silent after their heads were briefed by IRI representatives in Dubai and London about the survey, reacted only after the findings were published in newspapers on Saturday.

The IRI, a research wing of the US Republican Party, had conducted the survey in Pakistan in September.

“I contest and challenge the IRI (survey’s findings and) if they insist on the veracity of their survey, they should persuade Gen Musharraf to shed his uniform and contest election for any provincial or federal legislature against a PPP candidate in an open, free and fair election,” said Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Ms Bhutto. “I am sure the IRI will have to recompense Gen Musharraf the security deposit that he will forfeit in such an election,” he added.

Asked why the party had not disclosed the survey’s findings when Ms Bhutto was given a detailed presentation in Dubai, he said he had been waiting for a media briefing by PPP Secretary-General Raja Pervez Ashraf, who was also present in the meeting with IRI representatives on Dec 9.

Raja Zafarul Haq, the Chairman of the PML (N), rejected the IRI findings, terming them baseless and wrong. He said the survey’s authenticity could be judged from the fact that it had not only declared Gen Musharraf as the most popular leader, but also adjudged the PML-Q as the most popular political party. “They (IRI officials) also keep on sending such baseless surveys to (President) Bush,” he said.