KARACHI, Dec 15: The provincial secretary-general of the Pakistan People’s Party, Nafees Siddiqui, has reiterated his party’s stand that the caretaker set-up is nothing but an extension of the previous coalition government and said that steps taken by General (retd) Pervez Musharraf do not ensure that January 8 elections will be free and fair.

Flanked by party’s provincial information secretary Dr Fahmida Mirza and her deputy Waqar Mehdi, Mr Siddiqui addressed a news conference before the president’s address to the nation regarding the lifting of emergency on Saturday evening.

Though it was expected that Musharraf would take some positive steps to ensure holding of free and fair elections, it did not happen so. He alleged that the caretaker ministers were openly involved in the pre-poll rigging to the advantage of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) candidates.

Mr Siddiqui, who is also in charge of the PPP Election Monitoring Cell, demanded that no polling station be established at any private place and they be provided the final list of polling stations by Dec 22.

It was also demanded that the election commission should declare the name of polling staff and their departmental affiliations at least eight days before the holding of election and should also provide the lists of improvised polling stations by then.

General (retd) Musharraf had bulldozed the judicial system, he said, adding that it was insult that several judges took oath under the Provisional Constitution Order just a couple of days before the emergency was lifted and the constitution was restored.

Fehmida Mirza, who is contesting elections from a Badin constituency, said that the PPP was contesting the election under protest to expose the rigging plans of the government. She claimed that nomination papers of her spouse Mirza Zulfiqar were rejected on political grounds. She said she would challenge not only that decision of the tribunal but also the one that allowed Syed Ali Bakhsh Shah alias Pappu Shah and his wife Yasmeen Shah to contest election despite the solid evidence that she had to prove their degrees fake.