ISLAMABAD, Sept 22: The government on Saturday said the dissolution of a provincial assembly would have no effect on the presidential poll as the electoral college would remain intact after such an event.

Talking to Dawn, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan Niazi said there was no mention in the relevant rules of the number of the assemblies which constituted the electoral college. “Hence, the dissolution of any provincial assembly cannot create a legal problem in the way of holding of presidential polls,” he added.

He said that members of the provincial assemblies, and not the assemblies themselves, formed the electoral college for the election of the president. He said even if only three votes were polled and the one who obtained two would be declared elected as the president.

He said the law was very clear and there was no ambiguity in it.

Answering a question, the minister said it was correct that “sitting government servants, persons of unsound mind and those convicted by courts” were eligible to contest the presidential polls after a recent amendment to the rules for the presidential elections.

He claimed that the amendment was in line with judgments of the apex court.

Dr Afgan was confident that General Musharraf would be elected president unopposed for another five years.

Meanwhile, Election Commission secretary Kanwar Mohammad Dilshad said that the proposer and the seconder of a candidate for election to the office of the president should be a parliamentarian or member of any provincial assembly. They would have to produce their identity cards issued by the relevant assembly secretariat to prove their identity before the returning officer at the time of scrutiny of nomination papers, he added.In a statement, the secretary said that candidates for the presidential poll would have to submit, along with their nomination papers, the original extract from the existing electoral rolls prepared for general elections 2002, issued and signed by the registration officer/deputy election commissioner/assistant election commissioner concerned.

He said the candidates could file nomination papers before the chief election commissioner at the Election Commission Secretariat, Islamabad, up to noon on Thursday (Sept 27).

The papers could also be filed before the presiding officers in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta, he added.