ISLAMABAD, July 28: The election of Benazir Bhutto as party head is in conflict with the Political Parties Order, 2002, promulgated by the present military ruler, indicating that the PPP is inviting the government to disqualify it and “hold a referendum-like election.”

The relevant part of section 5 of the Political Parties Order, 2002, reads: “Provided that a person shall not be appointed or serve as an office-bearer of a political party if he or she is not qualified to be, or is disqualified from being elected or chosen as a member of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) under Article 63 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan or under any other law for the time being in force.”

Benazir Bhutto has been convicted under section 31 of the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance twice on the charge that she failed to appear before the accountability court, where four corruption cases are pending.

Benazir Bhutto, facing four corruption cases, was convicted in April 1999 by an Ehtesab Bench headed by Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum on charges of awarding a pre-shipment contract to a Swiss firm for personal considerations.

The conviction was not only set aside but also the judge who had handed down the judgment, had to leave the judicial institution after being declared “biased” by the SC on the appeals of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari.

Under the PPO, the party leader has to, within seven days from the completion of intra-party elections, submit a certificate under “his signatures to the Election Commission to the effect that the elections were held in accordance with the constitution of the party.”

The law further says that a political party failing to fulfil the conditions, as laid down in Article 12 and 13 of the PPO, will not be entitled to election symbol.

Under another law, the PPP chairperson is disqualified to hold party office. The law was promulgated by the military ruler soon after the conviction of Mian Nawaz Sharif in the helicopter case, on the insistence of the “King’s Party” which was hoping to lure the fence-sitters to its camp.

The government believes that the condition of holding a minimum qualification of a Bachelor’s degree will hit Benazir Bhutto as she did not posses the degree.

The party, however, insists that Benazir, the twice elected prime minister, has a qualification equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree.

“Let the regime find it out and make itself a laughing stock in the process,” is the line being repeatedly mouthed by the PPP’s Deputy Secretary General Mian Raza Rabbani whenever he is asked a question about his party chief’s educational qualification.

The National Assembly record shows that Benazir Bhutto was “educated at Redcliffe Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Completed Oxford’s diploma course in International Law and Diplomacy, 1977.”