Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Tuesday demanded of the chief of army staff (COAS) to bar the intelligence agencies from manipulating the election process, accusing them of facilitating PML-Q's candidates.
Addressing a press conference here, PPP election cell's chief, Senator Sardar Latif Khosa alleged that the intelligence agencies- Military Intelligence (MI), Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and Investigation Bureau (IB) are actively supporting the candidates of 'Q' League, particularly in those constituencies of Balochistan and NWFP which have been identified as sensitive, where observers and media representatives are not allowed to go.
Welcoming the decision of the Chief of Army Staff General Ishfaq Pervaiz Kayani to call back the military officials serving in civilian departments, the PPP leader sought his support to direct the spy agencies not to interfere in the elections scheduled for February 18.
He claimed that in many constituencies of Balochistan, the number of voters are more than the area population, which he termed a planned strategy to rig the elections to facilitate Q-League candidates. He blamed that Military Intelligence is monitoring elections in Dera Bugti, Qilla Abduallah, Kohlo and other districts which have been declared sensitive.
The PPP leader said that upcoming elections would have a significant impact on the future of the country, adding that democracy is the sole solution to resolve the problems, which is only possible holding free, fair and transparent elections.
Besides, Khosa accused speaker National Assembly Chaudhry Amir Hussain of making fresh recruitments against 100 posts in the National Assembly secretariat. He contended that after finishing of the term of the National Assembly, the post of speaker is merely symbolic and ceremonial and using any discretionary power during this period is sheer violation of the law. He further said that the speaker also extended tenure of a Joint Secretary four times in a year, who he said is his relative.
He maintained that 200 employees below BPS-4 have been freshly recruited in district Gujrat by the district Nazim Chaudhry Shafaat Hussain, the brother of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, President PML-Q.