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Pakistan referendum on April 30

A national referendum on whether Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf should remain for a five-year term will be held on April 30, the country's chief election commissioner said on Monday night.

Irshad Hassan Khan told Kyodo News that an order for this purpose has been issued.

Musharraf had announced on Friday that there would be a national referendum to ask the people if he was required to stay on as president for another five years, and had said the referendum would be held sometime in the first week of May.

Nearly 70 million voters would cast their votes in the April 30 referendum to decide whether Musharraf should stay on as president for a five-year term, Irshad, a retired justice, said in an interview with Kyodo News.

He said in the referendum the voters would be asked the direct question: 'For the continuation of the local self government, establishment of democracy and realisation of the vision of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, do you want to elect President Pervez Musharraf for a five years term?'

According to Pakistan's constitution, the president of Pakistan has the authority to hold referendum on an issue of national importance in the form of a question that can be answered with a 'yes' or a 'no'.

Irshad disclosed that the election commission was also making arrangements to enable the Pakistani expatriates abroad to cast their votes in the referendum by ballot.

This would be first time in all the elections and referendums of Pakistan's history that nearly three million Pakistani expatriates and their families would be given an opportunity to cast their votes in an election or referendum.

"We have to strictly follow the guidelines given by the Supreme Court in the order validating the October 12, 1999 military operation ousting the previous government," he said, when asked if some political parties might try to block the move by the government to hold the referendum.

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