Musharraf is trying to rig polls: Nawaz Sharif

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ATTOCK: While campaigning is on in full swing for the general elections in Pakistan, doubts are already being raised over the transparency of the polls. Former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif alleges President Musharraf is trying to rig the polls.

At a rally in Attock, famous for a jail that once held Nawaz Sharif, the message is all too clear. If Zardari's rallies concentrate on the memory of Benazir, Sharif's rallies are all about Musharraf.

If Nawaz Sharif’s party does well enough in the elections, he may be able to dethrone the very man who ousted him in a coup.

While the PML-N leader insists it isn't personal, its obvious that he sees this election as a referendum on Pakistan's president, and a chance for revenge against the men who split his party to form the pro-Musharraf PML-Q. Sharif, who spent months in jail and years in Saudi exile, says it's a miracle his party has been able to spring back.

“I feel blessed that even after so many years, my party is still intact,” says Sharif.

Even though Nawaz Sharif leads the popularity stakes, according to surveys his party will fall way behind the PPP in terms of seats. Sharif says he's also sure that the government will rig the elections.

“Musharraf is rigging the elections and that is why he rejected my papers. It’s a contest between PPP and us. The q-league doesn’t figure in it,” says Sharif.

A day after Musharraf had promised to make the elections free, fair and transparent, the US-based Human Rights Watch claimed it had caught Pakistan's Attorney General, Malik Qayyum on tape saying that the upcoming parliamentary elections will be ‘massively rigged’.

For sometime now, there had been speculation that Musharraf will try to rig the polls in order to get his own people elected to power. However, the secret tape revelation now seems to confirm these suspicions.

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