Polls delay aimed at rescuing PML-Q: Nawaz

LAHORE—Criticizing the election commission’s decision to delay parliamentary elections until Feb 18, Former Prime Minister and Quaid Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has said that it was aimed to succeed the king Party. The Government is main hurdle in independent investigation against assassination of Benazir Bhutto he said this while talking to UK High Commissioner Robert Brinkley here in his residence on Thursday.
During the meeting, various issues related to overall political situation of the country, murder of Benazir Bhutto, delay of Parliamentary elections, investigation of Bhutto’s murder from international experts and others were discussed. President PML-Q and Former Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif was also present on the occasion while UK High Commission was briefed about overall political situation of the country in length.
Neither the upcoming elections can be held in fair, free and transparent manner nor independence investigation against murder of Benazir Bhutto is possible till the current ruler is in power, Nawaz pointed out. The decision to delay elections was aimed to succeed king Party, he said, adding that, Q-league would not be able to get one seat if the elections were fair.
Speaking on the occasion, Robert Brinkley declared the assassination of Benazir Bhutto as a national tragedy by saying that the Pakistani nation deprived with renowned and great leader. He assured all assistance in the investigation, adding that international community want fair and free elections in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s U.S.-allied president must resign before next month’s elections or the country could risk slipping into civil war, opposition leaders and a leading independent research institute said Thursday.
The calls came after the government pushed back polls to Feb. 18 from the planned Jan. 8 date due to unrest following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
Bhutto’s death in a suicide bomb and gun attack plunged already volatile Pakistan deeper into crisis and stoked fears of political meltdown as the nation struggled to contain an explosion of Islamic militant violence.
The government — which had initially ruled out the need for foreign involvement in the assassination probe — has been criticized over its security arrangements for Bhutto, who had claimed elements in the ruling party were trying to kill her. The party vehemently denies such a plot. Bhutto supporters have insisted that a U.N. probe would be the only way to reveal the truth behind her Dec. 27 slaying. They dismissed President Pervez Musharraf’s announcement late Wednesday that Britain’s Scotland Yard will soon join the investigation.
“The mist of confusion will be cleared only if the regime accepts the party’s demand for holding a U.N. inquiry into the assassination as was done in the case of Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder,” said Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party.

—Agencies