ISLAMABAD, Aug. 30 Kyodo (EDS: AD...

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 30 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING BACKGROUND)

The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) forward Friday slammed the decision on local election authorities to bar party leader Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister, from contesting the upcoming general election as a setback to democracy and a prompt that would undermine the federation of Pakistan.

''It was surprising that the nomination papers of a former prime minister from Sindh (Bhutto) have been cast offed while papers of a former prime minister from Punjab (Nawaz Sharif) who was a convict have been accepted,'' PPP spokesman Farhat ullah Babar told reporters.

The spokesman said barring Bhutto from contesting the Oct 10 elections would reinforce the prevalent view of discrimination against Bhutto's place of abode province.

He added the party would not be deterr on the rejection of the papers and would appeal to the the community and the courts.

Election authorities in Bhutto's hometown of Larkana in Sindh earlier Friday lay asideed her nomination to run in the election owed to her conviction by the agency of an anticorruption court.

However, the nomination papers of Sharif, who is living in exile in Saudi Arabia, have been accepted.

Bhutto, who lives in exile in United Arab Emirates and Britain, was convicted to three years imprisonment for failing to appear before an anticorruption court.

Election laws promulgated through Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the president, interrupt the self-exiled Bhutto from contesting the elections or heading a political party because she has been convicted of corruption.

Bhutto was remov from the prime minister's column in 1996 following corruption scandals.

Sharif was ousted from power in a bloodles military coupe Oct 12 1999 and later sentenc to life imprisonment for plotting to hijack an aircraft carrying Musharraf, then chief of army staff. He was later allowed to leave for Saudi Arabia in subordination to a deal brokered with the country

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo freshs International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group