PPP awaits results with fear and expectation

Asif Zardari, co-chairman of Pakistan People's Party, who is travelling in a private plane from Nowshehra constituency in Sindh, is expected to arrive in Islamabad late Monday night to hold discussions with his party colleagues, PPP spokesperson Faratullah Babar told rediff.com in a telephonic interview.

Babar said, "Zardari has expectations and fears. Till yesterday night, his mood was upbeat. He thinks that if free and fair polls are allowed, the PPP will win hands down. But he fears that if polls are rigged it will be difficult to handle the situation."

Babar, who has been a senator, said, "Tonight the results will start pouring in. According to a new law, we have dispensed with centralised counting. Counting in urban areas will start as soon as voting ends. We expect some results anytime after 11 pm. We have planned the central executive meeting tomorrow morning. In that, we will examine the results of the election. We will see if massive rigging has been done by the government or medium scale rigging. Accordingly, our party will take a decision to accept the results or reject them."

When asked his opinion on the level of rigging, he said, 'So far we have got reports of massive rigging from Sindh and Baluchistan. We have four monitoring stations at Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar. We have got disturbing reports of the capture of pre-stamped ballot papers outside polling stations. The entire day was marked by systematic rigging."

When asked if PPP leaders were feeling elated at the prospect of coming back to power after a long time, Babar said, "We are between a hard rock and the deep sea. It is a challenge to form a government in times like this when the government treasury is empty and prices are so high. The incoming government will be forced to increase the price of fuel at least by Rs 15 per litre to sustain the economy. The decision will have a spiral impact and whoever takes the decision will face the music."

"We are worried both ways. The prospect of forming a government is not cheerful. The new government will come to power riding on people's expectations. The capital of goodwill the party has due to Benazir Bhutto's assassination will be lost if we don't meet people's expectations."

In the interview to India's The Hindu, Zaradari had said that Pakistan and India could 'agree to disagree' on Kashmir and work their relations around the issue. He that, "We can keep our position that there is a dispute and this is a political position. India has a different position.. So we can keep it there. And in spite of that we can have people-to-people contact, trade and be neighbours."

When rediff.com asked Babar to elaborate on Zaradari's views on Kashmir, he said, "These are not Zaradari's views. These are the views of the PPP. We believe that we have serious differences with India over Kashmir. But we should not predicate our entire edifice of our relationship on the issue of Kashmir. While you normalise the relationship there will be a way paved for creating the soft ground to find a solution to the Kashmir issue."

When asked about President Musharraf's choices he said, "Haven't you read his interview (external link) to Jemima Khan in The Independent? That clearly shows that Musharraf has gone berserk. He is calling our chief justice scum on the earth!"

Babar, predictably, dismissed the charge that Zardari is vulnerable due to corruption charges against him. He said, "There should be some yardstick to decide this issue. After 11 years in jail no charge has been proved against him."

When asked about PPP's image of being a pro-American party, he said, "This is largely due to a misunderstanding in the media. We were always against terrorism and extremism. We are saying that the global war against terror is not America's war but Pakistan's war. PPP is not like Musharraf who is running with hare and hunting with hounds. Because of our stand against terrorism we are wrongly branded as pro-American."