ISLAMABAD, Aug 4: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will face a crucial test on Monday when it applies for registration after defying new electoral laws by re-electing exiled leader Benazir Bhutto as its head.

“We are going to the chief election commissioner tomorrow to apply for registration with details of party accounts and a list of office bearers. We are hopeful they will accept and the PPP will be registered,” party spokesman Nazir Dhoki told AFP on Sunday.

Party officials said there was no move to replace Bhutto, a vocal opponent of Pervez Musharraf, to give it an easier run in October elections.

“She has not been convicted in any corruption or criminal case and the change of party leadership demand cannot be met,” Dhoki said.

“The party belongs to the people of Pakistan, it has not been formed by the government or the army.”

Benazir, declared PPP’s life chairperson five years ago, was elected unopposed in a nationwide internal party ballot on July 29, in defiance of electoral laws that ban her on two accounts — for being premier twice, and for holding two “absconding” convictions.

She was forced to contest her post under a new electoral law which makes fresh intra-party polls mandatory to qualify for parliamentary elections.

Benazir and her jailed husband, ex-senator Asif Ali Zardari, were convicted in a graft case in 1998, but the conviction was set aside by the Supreme Court which ordered a re-trial.

Benazir has twice this year been sentenced to three years in absentia by an anti-corruption court for failing to return to Pakistan to appear before anti-graft courts.

Dhoki said her conviction over her absence from the court cannot be a condition for rejection of her party papers.

“Her lawyer appeared on behalf of Benazir Bhutto, but the court did not allow (it),” he said, adding that he hoped the election commission would “act independently” in deciding the PPP application.

Dhoki reiterated that Bhutto was planning to return home before the elections. “She is not afraid of her arrest and there is no legal justification for her arrest.”

Benazir’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar earlier said “there is no move to change Benazir Bhutto (as leader). She has been elected by the party and she is chairperson.”

A newspaper report quoted unnamed party sources saying that Benazir, the two-time former prime minister who lives in self-imposed exile in Dubai and London, might step aside as she cannot lead the party or hold the top office under new laws introduced by President Musharraf.

The speculation gained currency after deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif of the rival Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) on Saturday bowed out in favour of his younger brother Shahbaz.

Babar said he was surprised over the PML-N’s replacement on Saturday of Sharif, who was Bhutto’s nemesis during the 11 years that preceded Musharraf’s 1999 takeover. But he rejected the possibility that she would follow suit.

“There is absolutely no such move in the PPP and there is no such thought in the party,” he said.

Election Commission spokesman Iftikhar Hussain Shah told AFP the deadline for political parties to submit their accounts and details of party elections and office bearers expires on Monday. “The Commission will conduct scrutiny of papers received on Monday and allot election symbols to those parties which comply with the new law,” he said.

The question of rejecting the papers will be decided if objections are raised from the parties or the government representatives.