KARACHI, Nov 22: Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto said on Thursday her party would file nomination papers under protest and expose what she termed the government’s plan to rig the elections.

“We are submitting nomination papers under protest as we don’t want to give a walkover to our opponents,” she told reporters after meeting Nawab Khair Bux Marri on who she had called to offer condolences over the killing of his son Balach Marri.

The PPP chairperson, however, did not rule out the possibility of still deciding to boycott the polls.

According to observers the green signal given by Ms Bhutto to her party to file nomination papers will further fracture the unstable and ineffective opposition because almost all parties and the PPP chairperson herself had been declaring that there could not be free and fair elections under Gen Musharraf and without an independent judiciary and free media.

According to sources, there is a lot of unease among some key members of the party who believe that PPP’s participation in the elections would provide legitimacy to the Musharraf regime and damage the party’s credibility.

The former prime minister condemned the killing of Balach Marri and called it a bad omen for the integrity of the federation. She asked the government to immediately halt the army operation in Balochistan and solve problems through dialogue.

Ms Bhutto said: “The killing and bloodshed in Balochistan must immediately come to an end, all those Balochs who have disappeared should be released and the government should give compensation to their families who were displaced during the army operation in the province.”

She called for national reconciliation in Balochistan and end to the military operation, release of all political prisoners, general amnesty and compensation for the people dislocated by fighting.

She said Balochistan was in the danger of separating from the federation unless an urgent political solution was found. She called for the release of Sardar Akhtar Mengal, Sardar Salal Bugti and other Baloch leaders. She recalled that in August 2006 the security forces had killed Nawab Akbar Bugti and said that his assassination had inflamed the passions of the Balochs, particularly the younger generation.

She said the killing of Balach Marri would further inflame passions and could only add fuel to the fire in Balochistan. “People of Balochistan, like people elsewhere, need food, clothing and shelter, and not bullets,” she said, adding that nationalism could not be crushed by force.

“The party has advised its candidates to file their nomination papers subject to a decision to be taken by all the parties whether to participate in or boycott polls,” Ms Bhutto’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar told AFP.