KARACHI, Aug 4: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan has hinted towards the formation of a united front of all opposition parties to compel the government to set up an independent election commission with consensus before the next general elections..

He said soon after the local government elections, the opposition parties would have an opportunity for mass mobilisation against pre-and post-poll rigging to prove to the world that the Musharraf government could not hold fair, free and transparent elections.

Mr Khan, who was in Karachi on a brief visit, was addressing a press conference on Thursday at the party’s provincial secretariat. Earlier, he had presided over PTI’s Sindh council session.

Highlighting the need for an independent election commission with its own separate secretariat, like in India, Mr Khan said the manner in which the forthcoming local bodies elections were being conducted had exposed all claims of the government.

“President Pervez Musharraf asked the people in Swat to vote for Pakistan Muslim League-supported candidates, while Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz announced a development package for Hyderabad in the public meeting of Muttahida Qaumi Movement. But on the other hand, candidates supported by the opposition parties were being kidnapped. In Tharparkar district alone, 38 out of 42 candidates had returned uncontested. Under these circumstances, how could local government elections be called fair, free, impartial and transparent,” he asked.

He urged all the opposition parties to unite on a one-point demand of independent election commission.

When asked if opposition parties would consider boycotting elections amid claims of pre-poll rigging, Mr Khan said the government had planned non-party elections so that opposition parties could not boycott the elections despite complaints of pre-poll rigging.

He said the present government was not capable of holding free, fair and impartial elections.

In reply to another question, Mr Khan said it was quite clear that the elections were being rigged and the only way left to restore real democracy was to unite on A platform. When his attention was drawn to the deportation of Maulana Fazlur Rahman by the UAE authorities, he said it was humiliation of the entire Pakistani nation.”

He said when bomb blasts rocked London, the very next day our government hauled up 700 Pakistanis although later on the British government clarified that no Pakistani was involved in the blasts. By such an action what message our rulers were conveying to the world, he said.

CANDIDATES: The PTI-backed 30 panels of Nazims/Naib Nazims and 350 councillors are contesting elections in Karachi city district. This was stated by PTI Sindh Chief Zubair Khan in response to a question during the press conference. He said in the province, his party-backed candidates in the run were 1,150 for councillors while 75 panels of Nazims/Naib Nazims were contesting.