ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: Chief of European Union Election Observer Mission John Cushnahan is perturbed over the leakage of a report submitted by it to the EU Commission last month and he said on Tuesday that it can create tensions with the government or the political parties.

“I do not know how it was leaked, from where it was leaked and what was the purpose,” he said at a press conference.

No conclusions were drawn in the report as it was preliminary observation or the analysis submitted by him personally to the EU Commission in Brussels last month, Mr Cushnahan said.

He said he carried the report on a computer disc to Brussels. He ruled out the possibility of leakage here or by the core group deployed in the country. It was kept in a very secure environment and the members of the core group were not aware of it, he said.

“The document was an overview of our observation activities, containing analysis of concern expressed to us during the course of our observations,” he said.

He said the leakage of the preliminary observations could create tensions in the group’s relations with the authorities and some political parties.

Referring to objections coming even from the country’s highest office that the EU mission should observe rather than prejudging the elections, he said he had repeatedly stated that the observers were here to observe the elections and not to pass judgments.

He said the mission would make public its interim report within 48 hours after the polling.

Replying to a question, he said the government had refused to provide the observers security during the elections and it was considering to hire private security.

The mission in its survey of the elections would exclude the tribal areas for security concerns, he added.