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| EC confirms Malik’s key role in by-polls delay |
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Thursday, May 08, 2008
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: The controversy behind the postponement of the by-elections deepened on Wednesday when the Election Commission Secretary Kanwar Dilshad revealed that he had received a phone call from Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik, who had asked for a delay. This confirms a similar claim by the NWFP government. As Dilshad’s statement to The News firmly established that Rehman Malik was the man who had successfully executed the controversial postponement, it was still unclear who, between the Zardari House and the presidency, actually authored the script of the so-called conspiracy.
Talking to The News on Wednesday, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani categorically denied either knowing anything in advance or requesting the postponement of the by-elections. The prime minister said he heard the news about the by-polls postponement while he was travelling and disclosed that his adviser, when confronted by him, had denied any role in the postponement of the by-elections.
No matter what Rehman Malik had told the prime minister, all accusing fingers point at him, as he has not only close association with Asif Ali Zardari but also enjoys good relations with the presidency.
NWFP Chief Minister Haider Khan Hoti was reported to have said that he was asked by Rehman Malik to write to the Election Commission on behalf of the NWFP government that because of unsatisfactory law and order situation in the province, the by-elections should be postponed. Hoti said Malik had told him that similar reports were coming from other provinces as well.
Background interactions with sources in the Election Commission reveal that Malik had contacted Commission Secretary Kanwar Dilshad and asked him to get the by-elections postponed for two months.
Dilshad, these sources say, was told that the NWFP government was facing a law and order situation while the other provinces also had similar concerns. Kanwar Dilshad, when contacted by The News, confirmed that he did receive a phone call from the prime minister’s adviser on interior last Monday.
He said Rehman Malik told him that the NWFP government was finding it difficult to hold the by-elections and was moving a reference to the Election Commission, seeking the by-poll postponement.
Dilshad said the adviser also referred to the security situation in other parts of the country but did not name any province. Sources in the commission, however, insist that after Rehman Malik’s phone call, the secretary held a meeting with the chief election commissioner and other officials concerned and discussed the issue.
Rehman Malik could not be contacted for his reply despite repeated calls and messages delivered by this correspondent to one of his staff members. The staff member, who introduced him as Asif, initially said that Sahib was busy in the cabinet meeting. Later, when again contacted, he said Malik was busy and could not call back.
He, however, confirmed that this correspondent’s message was delivered to the adviser, who is avoiding the media since Monday. Interestingly, Malik was reported by his staff to have been attending the cabinet meeting almost the same time when this correspondent spoke to the prime minister, who heads the cabinet meeting.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, however, told this correspondent that he had inquired from Malik but the latter denied that he was behind this postponement. The prime minister, however, said he was shocked to hear the news of the postponement of the by-elections.
“Do you expect from me that I would issue such an order,” the prime minister said when asked if he had asked the election commission to postpone the by-elections. He said he was a democrat and could never think of such undemocratic moves.
Gilani said in his two-hour meeting with Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday, the two had already decided to hold the by-elections as per the original schedule. In his reaction, reported by The News on Tuesday, Asif Ali Zardari also condemned the postponement of the by-elections and termed it a conspiracy against democracy.
The report said that Zardari was not ready to believe that Rehman Malik had masterminded the delay in the by-elections. “May be Kamal Shah (interior secretary) managed the whole drama and you know his is working for someone else, and the bureaucracy is playing dirty games with democracy,” Zardari had stated.
He, however, did not answer the question why the government did not remove such secretaries. But now Kanwar Dilshad’s statement, endorsing what the NWFP chief minister had said, has made it clear that it was not the interior secretary but the adviser on interior behind the by-election’s postponement.
Maj-Gen (retd) Rashid Qureshi was also not attending his mobile phone despite repeated efforts to find out if the presidency had pulled any strings to engineer Monday’s surprise move to embarrass the coalition government.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
