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Pakistan election panel member resigns

Differences in the five-member Pakistan Election Commission over its legitimacy to hold a national referendum for a five-year term for President Pervez Musharraf have come to the fore, with one of its members resigning in protest.

Justice Tariq Mehmood, a member of the commission and also a judge of the Balochistan high court, resigned as he was of the view that the panel had no mandate to hold such a referendum, a Pakistani daily, the Dawn, said on Friday.

Mehmood resigned on April 6, the first working day after Musharraf announced the referendum, it said.

In his resignation letter, Mehmood noted that the issuance of ballot papers for the referendum and the referendum order were unconstitutional and it was not the mandate of the election commission to conduct such an exercise, the daily reported.

Officials in the commission, however, declined to comment on the report.

PTI

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