MARDAN, Oct 2: Former interior minister and a leader of the Pakistan People’s Party Naseerullah Babar has expressed doubts about the holding of the presidential election on Oct 6 as it has been challenged in the Supreme Court which may stay it.

He said the party’s meeting in London on Wednesday might consider tendering resignations in the light of the current political situation.

Talking to reporters here, Mr Babar said the PPP would welcome the MQM into national politics. He said the crackdown in Karachi during the 1990s was not the only instance of “operation against outlaws” citing the action against militants in tribal ares.

He said the PPP wanted peace and if it was given a chance again, it would clean the country of criminals and militants and establish peace and writ of the government.

The former interior minister termed the MMA a ‘B team’ of Gen Musharraf and said the PPP had refused to join the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) as it was aimless to join it.

He said the no-confidence move was a stratagem of Maulana Fazlur Rehman just to foil the dissolution of the provincial assembly and give way to President Musharraf to be elected easily.

Mr Babar said the Pakistan-Afghan peace jirga was a futile exercise because majority of the people in Afghanistan were with Taliban and they had been ignored in the jirga.

He claimed that Osama bin Ladin had financed the opposition to topple the PPP government. He condemned the police action against journalists and lawyers in Islamabad and said that people were with them.