ISLAMABAD, June 18: Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Monday that he supported President Pervez Musharraf’s election by the present assemblies so that general elections were held on schedule.

Addressing a news conference here, the minister said Gen Musharraf might keep his army uniform if the presidential elections were held between October 15 and November 15.

Sheikh Rashid claimed that PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto was still in contact with the government although the process got slowed down after the May 12 Karachi incident, with the PPP leader raising the ‘price’ for a deal.

He added that whatever claims she might make, Benazir could not return to Pakistan without a deal with the government. “She may talk on different issues in her own way and may hoodwink Nawaz Sharif but eventually both the parties (PPP and PML-N) will contest elections separately,” he said.

The minister complained of huge irregularities in the voters’ lists released by the Election Commission and said that he had found the names of 70,000 voters missing from these lists in his Rawalpindi constituencies of NA 55 and 56.

Earlier, the PPP Parliamentarians had raised the issue with the Chief Election Commissioner alleging that the names of 20 million voters had been removed from the lists.