LAHORE, July 8: A senior PML-N leader believes that the opposition can benefit by boycotting the Attock and Tharparkar by-polls.

Rana Sanaullah, parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly , says the opposition should instead launch a drive for urging people not to cast their votes for making controversial the two by-polls being contested by prime minister-designate Shaukat Aziz.

The suggestion had also been conveyed to the party leadership in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), he told Dawn here on Thursday. Accusing the government of pre-poll rigging, he argued that like in the July 3 by-polls to PP-156 (Lahore), the opposition would be unable to spot any rigging on the polling day, facilitating the government to show the world media that the whole process had been fair and transparent, and acceptable even to the opposition.

By contesting the elections which, he said, were bound to be won by the government nominee, the ARD and the MMA would play the role of "a friendly opposition" by dignifying its process.

Mr Khan said the local leaders of the PML-N and the PPP opposed his suggestion on the plea that it would deprive them of an opportunity to contact voters through electioneering.

But he rejected the argument by saying that the campaign for urging people not to visit polling stations and boycott the election process would be a compensation for it.

Insisting on the utility of his proposal, he maintained that had the Pakistan National Alliance not boycotted provincial assembly polls in March 1977 after levelling rigging charges in the National Assembly elections, it would have failed in launching a vigorous and successful movement against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

By participating in the election process they would have lost their stance on NA polls and confidence of the people, he added. The boycott drive could provoke the government to arrest opposition leaders and activists and thus pave the way for confrontational politics required to dislodge the incumbent rulers, he said. He, however, admitted that presence of popular leadership, presently sitting abroad, was necessary to make any such movement succeed.