KARACHI, Dec 2: Preparations for new electoral rolls have started for the promised October 2002 general elections in the country.

Persons of 21 years of age and above on Jan 1st, 2002, will be enrolled as voters in the draft, which will be ready for inviting objections by Dec 20.

After decision on objections on the draft lists, a door-to- door campaign for verification of the rolls would be launched from January 1st, which will be completed within twenty days.

For this purpose, about 72,000 election staff will be recruited from the employees of education department, banks, financial institutions and other government organizations.

Although the elections will be held on a party basis, so far except demands by certain leaders for holding fair and free polls, no political party has initiated any exercise to warm up its party cadres. The political leaders appear to be demoralized, particularly in the case of three main rivals — PPP, PML and MQM — whose top leaders have taken refuge abroad.

However, when asked about the lacklustre attitude of the political parties in election preparations, observers pointed out that in the absence of basic game rules any exercise would be futile.

They pointed out that president Pervez Musharraf will unveil a detailed election schedule on Aug 14, and by that time all ground rules would have also been announced. Only after that the political parties would be in a position to take decision on how to jump into the fray.

But, this will leave very little time for electioneering.

At this stage, the PPP is struggling for its survival as the party chairperson Benazir Bhutto has been in a self-imposed exile to avoid corruption cases.

The PML, which had carved a niche during its last government, is ridden with factions and is completely demoralised. It will require a herculean task to infuse spirit and enthusiasm among the party workers.

The ARD, led by Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, has been a loose group and could not be turned into an effective election alliance.

The JUI and ANP, which have a say in the politics of NWFP and Balochistan, appear to be licking their wounds from the Afghan wars. The JI, which commands committed workers, has so far failed to prove itself as a party of the masses despite whirlwind tours and holding public meetings in the country by its leaders.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement, an urban-based political group in Sindh, is busy in court battles to get acquitted its activists facing various cases instituted against them during the last PPP and the PML governments.

Tehrik-i-Insaf of Imran Khan, Allama Tahirul Qadri’s Awami Tehrik, Millat Party of Sardar Farooq Leghari, Tehrik-i-Istiqlal of Air Marshal Asghar Khan and Ajmal Khattak’s National Awami Party have even failed to prove their worth as political pressure groups.

In Sindh, in contrast to the MQM, a loose alliance of former legislators belonging to different political parties, has surfaced under the banner of SDA led by Imtiaz Shaikh. If its iftar parties, largely attended by people commanding influence in their constituencies, could be taken as a bench mark, one could term it a well-planned preparations for the forthcoming polls with the SDA as an election platform.