ISLAMABAD Jan 9: Vice-president of the Pakistan Muslim League Syed Kabir Ali Wasti on Sunday urged President Gen Pervez Musharraf to take the opposition into confidence before appointing a new chief election commissioner to conduct local government polls and general elections in October 2006.

"It is a golden opportunity for the president to take along all political forces to put the country on track of real democracy." However, Mr Wasti urged the president to be wary against elements around him who, he said, had recently misled him into going for party-less local bodies polls.

He said that in this way, they wanted to save their faces in case of reverses in these elections. Stressing the need for protecting the national integrity, he said that Gen Musharraf should continue efforts for national reconciliation and take all political forces along in his future decisions about holding elections and transfer of power.

Terming the advice on holding party-less elections misleading, he said that Gen Musharraf's credibility as a man of word was at risk because he was accepting wrong advice.

"The country needed an impartial chief election commissioner who is acceptable to all the parties participating in elections and the government must consult opposition parties in this regard," he said.

The PML leader said that the idea of going for party-less polls was to put a claim on all independent candidates returning in the local bodies polls, adding that most of them usually go along with the sitting government and score political points.

He, however, said that party-based polls alone could train political worker and there was a shortage of political workers. He said that the credibility of the president and the institution would be in jeopardy if he failed to ensure a peaceful transfer of power to the elected party in fair and transparent elections, adding that it might even put the country's integrity at stake.

"Party-less local bodies polls will harm the democratic system. It will also hurt interests of all political parties and the decision will hurt Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal most," he claimed.

He said that the entire democratic structure would crumble if party-less polls were held and people, too, would lose interest in general elections. Mr Wasti urged the government to tackle the Balochistan issue by accepting monetary demands of Baloch nationalist leaders instead of banking on the parliamentary committee's recommendations which, he claimed, had failed to deliver.

He blamed a retired BPS-22 bureaucrat who happened to be secretary petroleum for having misled the Baloch leadership and said that he should be asked to settle the issue.