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Questions on credibility continue
to haunt Pakistan polls

Pakistan goes to the polls on Thursday for the first time since President Gen Pervez Musharraf grabbed power in a bloodless coup in 1999, amidst questions by the country's main human rights group about the credibility of the exercise.

Though Musharraf has assured a free and fair election, on the eve of the polling the independent Pakistan Human Rights Commission claimed it had documentary evidence of electoral malpractices.

The body has also criticised recent constitutional changes, which it said would undermine the outcome of the polls.

Around 72 million people are eligible to vote to elect a 342-member national assembly and four provincial assemblies, which were suspended and later dissolved by Musharraf. Over 7,000 candidates are in the fray.

Two of the country's leading political figures and former premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharief, who are in exile, are not contesting. While Sharief withdrew his nomination, Bhutto was barred from contesting.

Opinion polls show Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party and the 18-month old pro-government Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) are engaged in a neck-to-neck race prompting fears of post-poll horse-trading.

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