KARACHI, Feb 9: Nafees Ahmed Siddiqui, the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy candidate for the by-election on NA-250, has said that the Sindh governor and chief minister will be responsible for any law and order problem on the polling day.

Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Friday, the ARD candidate said the by-election would set the future course of action for the PPP for the next general election as the party was taking part in the by-poll to test the claim of the government and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) regarding holding of fair election.

He said he had lodged a number of complaints with the ECP but it did not pay any heed to them.

Mr Siddiqui said the incompetence of the election commission could be gauged from the fact that it had made an English-medium school in Clifton as one of the polling stations for the by-election despite the fact that it had not existed for the last one-and-a-half years.

He said that the home secretary had turned down his demand for deploying rangers inside the polling stations at a meeting with all candidates for the by-election. He would only accept result of the by-election when employees of the federal government worked as polling staff, he added.

He accused President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz of running the election campaign of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement candidate.

He said General Musharraf had ordered the ruling Pakistan Muslim League candidate Haleem Siddiqui to withdraw in favour of the MQM candidate.

The ARD candidate pointed finger at the partiality of the police and feared that like previous instances, policemen would help in bogus voting.

PML-N: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has asked people to exercise their right of vote in favour of the ARD candidate for by-election on NA-250.

In a statement issued on Friday, Salim Zia, acting president of the PML-N Sindh, said the by-poll was a test case for the government and the election commission, and by ensuring fair election, they could prove their claims of impartiality.