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| Sunday, 1 September 2002 |
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Pakistan allows militant leader to contest polls LAHORE, Pakistan, Aug 30 (Reuters) Pakistani election authorities have allowed the detained head of an outlawed militant group to stand in October elections, officials said on Friday. Maulana Azam Tariq, the pro-Taliban leader of banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, filed nomination papers to contest the polls in his home town of Jhang in eastern Punjab province. "His papers have been found correct," said an election commission official in Lahore, capital of Punjab. Pakistani authorities jailed Tariq late last year after he made fiery speeches against military ruler General Pervez Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war on terror that toppled the Taliban regime in neighbouring Afghanistan. However, Tariq is jailed under an emergency decree, and has not been formally convicted, making him eligible for the election on October 10. Musharraf banned Sipah-e-Sahaba in January as part of his crackdown to contain rising militancy. Sipah-e-Sahaba, which draws its members from the country's majority Sunni Muslims, is accused of involvement in the killings of several minority Shi'ite Muslims. On Friday, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, a major rival of Musharraf, had her nomination papers rejected in the town of Ratto Dero in Sindh province because she had been convicted earlier this year of failing answer corruption charges. On Thursday, poll officials in Lahore gave preliminary approval for another former premier, Nawaz Sharif, to contest the polls. Sharif, who lives in exile in Saudi Arabia, was overthrown by Musharraf in a bloodless coup in 1999. |
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