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Bhutto
plans to contest next October polls.
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KARACHI,
Aug 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The party of Pakistan's
self-exiled ex-Premier Benazir Bhutto prepared Saturday, August 17,
2002, to file her nomination papers for October 10 elections as she
declared she would run for Prime Minister.
Bhutto
made the vow in an email interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP)
from London, a day after her legal challenge against laws barring her
from the polls got under way in the High Court of southern Sindh
province.
A
division bench of the Sindh High Court put Friday, August 16, the
Attorney General on notice for August 21, when Bhutto’s petition
came up for the pre-admission hearing, according to Pakistani daily
The Dawn.
Bhutto
made the Federation, Chief Election Commissioner, Returning Officer
NA-207 and NAB Chairman respondents in the petition.
Arguing
the petition, filed by Bhutto's counsel Farooq H. Naek, Barrister
Kamal Azfar contended that section 8D (2) (n) of the CE's order 21 of
2002 was unconstitutional while at the same time challenged the rules
of section 31 of the NAB Ordinance.
It
is the case of the petitioner that the military regime sees in the
petitioner a threat to its power and is continuing her
politically-motivated persecution. In this connection, the regime
passed an absentee law in the shape of Section 31-A by amending the
NAB Ordinance 1999 and unlawfully applied it in the aforesaid three
courts against the petitioner, which is challenged.
It
is also her contention that the military regime repealed the Political
Parties Act and made Political Parties Order 2002 requiring parties
seeking to contest the elections to hold intra-party elections within
a short period which the petitioner's party, Pakistan Peoples' Party
(PPP), did, according to The Dawn.
PPP
activists collected nomination papers from her birthplace and home
constituency in the Sindh city of Larkana, 460 kilometers (285 miles)
west of the provincial port capital Karachi.
"I
hope to run for Premier myself as I am still qualified to contest and
I will file my nomination papers by August 24," she said,
referring to a deadline set by Pakistan's Electoral Commission.
Bhutto,
twice-elected and twice-dismissed as Prime Minister on corruption
charges, vowed to return from four years' self-imposed exile in London
and Dubai to run in the parliamentary elections, AFP reported.
But
she conceded Saturday that she will not be back in time to file
nominations in person, as she pledged in an earlier telephone
interview last week.
"It's
so sad she herself is not here and I have to go and collect her
nomination, but the people will once show their support for
Bhutto," said veteran PPP activist Ashraf Abbasi, directed by
Bhutto to collect nomination papers for registration as a candidate in
Larkana.
"Over
300 workers raised slogans reading “Long live Bhutto” and “Prime
Minister Benazir”as Election Officer Abdul Ghani Somroo handed over
the nomination papers," Abbasi's son Munawar said.
"Larkana
is Bhutto's city and we can not think of Larkana without Bhutto,"
said an emotional PPP supporter.
Bhutto
said that the polls would have little credibility if her legal
challenge failed and elections proceed without her.
"I
am sure people will question the credibility of an electoral process
where their chosen representative is excluded."
Bhutto,
whose father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was ousted as Prime Minister in a
1977 military coup and hanged two years later, said she was
"sad" at being barred from the elections.
"My
father and I served the country selflessly and brought it pride and
prestige. My family gave its blood for the country."
In
an earlier interview, Bhutto said she would fly home to Pakistan late
August or early September, despite threats she would be arrested on
arrival.
She
said she would bid for election from behind bars if she is jailed.
However,
Bhutto still has to win the legal battle to qualify for the polls, the
first since military ruler President Pervez Musharraf seized power in
a bloodless coup in October 1999.
"There
is a morally bankrupt and corrupt mafia that has strangled democracy
in Pakistan to rob our citizens of their right to freedom and human
dignity, equal opportunity and progress," she said.
The
PPP pulled out of the elections on the basis of her disqualification
and formed a separate wing called the Pakistan People's Party
Parliamentarians (PPPP) to contest the elections without her.
Party
leaders say they will elect Bhutto Prime Minister should the PPP,
fielding some 280 candidates, win the election.
