ISLAMABAD, Sept 5: Pakistan Muslim League (PML) presidential candidate Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed has written a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Mohammad Farooq, urging him to take notice of reports that the government was seeking photographs shot through mobile phones of the marked ballot papers to ensure that no voter changed his mind after committing to poll in favour of Asif Ali Zardari in Saturday’s election.

Mr Hussain, whose party lawmakers in the National Assembly, Senate and four provincial assemblies are divided on voting in the presidential election, made these comments during a press briefing at the PML House on Friday. The PML president, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Information Secretary Senator Tariq Azeem and the party’s senior vice-president, Ejazul Haq, were present on the occasion.

The PML presidential hopeful, who is unsure as to how many of his party lawmakers’ votes will be cast for him, urged the chief election commissioner to ensure that there was a ‘transparent screen’ where voters cast their ballot paper to ensure secrecy of balloting.

Referring to the four attacks on Pakistani territory by Nato troops in which 18 people were killed and 15 others injured, Mushahid Hussain said the president to be elected tomorrow (Saturday) would also be the supreme commander of the armed forces and his top priority should be to take steps to preserve the country’s territorial integrity and protect civilian lives and property.

He said the newly-elected president should have as his first task to convene a joint session of the parliament, discussing these issues pertaining to the recurring attacks on Pakistani territory and the resultant civilian casualties and frame a policy with consensus of all political forces. Mushahid Hussain Syed also briefed the media on his presidential campaign which, he said, “was a unique campaign with a difference since we went out of Islamabad drawing rooms and took the campaign to the people of the four provinces”. He said he had also focused on transparency by declaring his assets and presenting a vision for the future by challenging Asif Ali Zardari to debate on national issues, a challenge which he had not accepted. He said Saturday’s vote was a vote to defend Pakistan on the Defence of Pakistan day and that too in the holy month of Ramazan.