ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: Opposition Leader in the Senate and a People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) stalwart Mian Raza Rabbani has criticized the statement made by the government lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzada before the Supreme Court in which he said that Gen Musharraf would quit his army chief office after his re-election.

Talking to Dawn, the PPP leader said that the nation remembered that a similar promise was made by Gen Pervez Musharraf in his televised address to the nation in which he had announced to remove his army uniform by December 31, 2004.

Mr Rabbani said that the question before the Supreme Court was that whether Gen Musharraf was eligible for contesting the presidential election under the constitution. Therefore, he said, the statement submitted by Mr Pirzada before the Supreme Court on behalf of Gen Musharraf had no importance.

Mr Rabbani also criticized the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for amending the Presidential Election Rules and termed it ‘unconstitutional and illegal’. He said the PPP regarded the amendment as “rigging the forthcoming presidential elections” that would have far reaching political and constitutional repercussions.

The ECP through a notification issued on September 10 that has been kept secret so far arbitrarily changed the rules barring the returning officer from rejecting the nomination papers of a candidate under Article 63 of the Constitution pertaining to the eligibility of a person for becoming a member of parliament and president of Pakistan.

Mr Rabbani said that through this act, the ECP’s role had become questionable and the views of the political parties that the present ECP could not hold free and fair polls had become stronger. He said the democratic forces would reject such a move by the ECP.