Pakistan polls on time, asserts Musharraf

Islamabad, Jan 10: Asserting that there would be no further delay in the February 18 parliamentary elections in the country, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf rejected the allegations of pre-poll rigging and setting up ghost polling stations.

Talking to a four-member European Union Election Observer delegation, headed by Michael Ghaler, which called on him at his Camp Office in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, the President said observers from all over the world for the forthcoming elections would be welcom.President Musharraf said the Election Commission of Pakistan was taking every step to ensure that the entire electoral exercise could be held in a transparent manner. Mr Ghaler thanked the President for the help provided by the different government departments to the EU Observer Mission which is deploying their observers in different parts of the country.

He said the mission would apply the same principles of election observation as it did in other parts of the world. He said the findings of the Mission would be based on facts and not heresy, adding that their report would be entirely objective. The delegation informed the President their first report will be finalised within two days.

UNI