PPP candidates to file papers

Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto said on Thursday her party would file nomination papers under protest and expose what she termed the government’s plan to rig the elections.“We are submitting nomination papers under protest as we don’t want to give a walkover to our opponents,” she told reporters after meeting Nawab Khair Bux Marri on who she had called to offer condolences over the killing of his son Balach Marri.The PPP chairperson, however, did not rule out the possibility of still deciding to boycott the polls.According to observers the green signal given by Ms Bhutto to her party to file nomination papers will further fracture the unstable and ineffective opposition because almost all parties and the PPP chairperson herself had been declaring that there could not be free and fair elections under Gen Musharraf and without an independent judiciary and free media.According to sources, there is a lot of unease among some key members of the party who believe that PPP’s participation in the elections would provide legitimacy to the Musharraf regime and damage the party’s credibility.