ISLAMABAD, 26 January 2007 — Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Muhammad Farooq said here yesterday that it would be for the returning officers to decide whether to accept or reject nomination papers of former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.

Farooq rejected the opposition’s demand that the next elections be held on the basis of the old voters’ list.

He said, “We are updating the lists which would be posted at 90,000 places across the country so that voters can have an opportunity to see their names and update information if they want to.”

The chief election commissioner was speaking to reporters after a meeting with a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) team.

He said he had rejected the PPP demand about retaining the old voters’ list for the coming elections. “In the last five years many have attained the age of 18 and they cannot be disfranchised,” Farooq said.

He also turned down another PPP demand that the local governments be suspended for three months as they said the local bodies could help in manipulating poll results.

Farooq said all voters’ names would be included in the lists to be prepared with the help of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).

The PPP delegation that met the chief election commissioner yesterday included PPP deputies Sherry Rehman, Raza Rabbani, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Enver Baig, Nayyar Bukhari and Babar Awan.

The PPP delegation asked Farooq to take notice of the public meetings addressed by President Pervez Musharraf. They alleged that President Musharraf was campaigning for the ruling Pakistan Muslim League which is an unconstitutional.

Local leaders of the PPP say Benazir Bhutto would return to Pakistan after the announcement of the election schedule.

Afghans Arrested

Police have arrested over 300 Afghan nationals in the southern city of Karachi who had gone to perform Haj on fake Pakistani passports, an official said yesterday.

The Afghan nationals were arrested at Karachi’s airport after they arrived from Saudi Arabia, Abdul Malik, a senior immigration official told Reuters.

“They are in our custody and are under investigation,” he said. Immigration authorities arrested 183 Afghan nationals on Wednesday night and another 122, including women, on Saturday.

The government says there are more than three million Afghan refugees living and working in Pakistan, amongst the largest concentrations of refugees anywhere in the world.

More than a million Afghan refugees have been registered by the government since last October in a drive to provide them with official identification.