ARD links participation in 2007 polls with return of Benazir and Nawaz

The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) has linked its participation in 2007 elections with 'honourable' return of self-exiled leader Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.
"We have decided, in principle, that we will not take part in the electoral process prior to the come-back of popular leadership," ARD Secretary General Zafar Iqbal Jhagra told a news conference at PML (N) office.
"On the one hand, Musharraf refers to the Constitution and, on the other, violates it by saying he will not allow them back home," Jhagra said. He said the apex court in its observation had said that any Pakistani citizen could come back home if and when he desires so.
He said that there was a conspiracy to rig the third phase election of local bodies. He said he feared that Election Commission's decision to issue special identity cards to councillors was aimed at casting fake votes and preventing opposition councillors from exercising their right to vote.
Likewise, the issuance of such cards to as many as 24,000 women councillors without their photos on them would lead to the polling of bogus votes.
He said he had faxed a letter to Acting Chief Election Commissioner Abdul Hamid Dogar, pointing out these anomalies, which, he added, would change the entire complexion of results.
Jhagra called upon the Election Commission to issue fresh cards to women councillors, with their photographs in order to minimise chances of irregularities in the nazim and deputy nazim elections on October 6.
The PML (N) leader alleged that coercive methods were the order of the day, and from Multan alone 100 councillors had been abducted for forcing them to change loyalties. He claimed that in Peshawar, councillors were being offered Rs 0.2 million to vote for the ruling party candidates.
Jhagra said that the government was also engaged in disqualifying rival parties' candidates, and Munawar Khan, an opposition candidate for the slot of nazim from Laki Marwat, was the latest casualty.
He said that the opposition would not leave the field open for the government and it would continue exposing massive irregularities in the electoral process.