KARACHI, Feb 16: The audiotape of the Attorney-General of Pakistan, Malik Mohammad Qayyuum, acknowledging that the Feb 18 polls will be massively rigged, has further lent credence to opposition assertions that the elections would be anything but impartial.

In a statement issued here on Saturday, the leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Raza Rabbani, said that such a statement by a top government official vindicated the position of the opposition regarding the violation of constitutional provisions by the government and the election commission.

He said that curbs on the media and the threat given by the caretaker minister for information when read with the statement of the attorney-general were sufficient enough to disclose the government’s intentions to steal the elections from the people of Pakistan.

The PPP central leader recalled that the government had also played a key role in rigging general elections in the past by facilitating transfers of judicial and police officials.

He charged that it had again helped raise an additional police force for the PML-Q supporters in Sindh and Punjab to be posted at polling stations.

Mr Rabbani said that apart from the refusal of visas to a number of international observers, the movement of those allowed entry to the country had also been restricted. The international observers could not make spot visits of polling stations or visit those polling stations that had been declared “sensitive”, he said.

The PPP leader said that it was the second time that the attorney-general’s telephonic conversation had revealed the intentions of the governments that he had served.

He said that in the light of this admission and disclosure, the attorney-general must resign immediately.

“After the principal law officer’s admission of a rigging plan there remains no moral or political justification for the present rulers to continue in office as they have been found involved in a massive rigging plan and violation of the constitution, therefore, they must resign immediately”, he said.