By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI, Feb 17 2008 (IPS)

"The Attorney General is famous for saying things that somehow get &#39providentially&#39 taped," said Wajihuddin Ahmed, a former supreme court judge, commenting on the tape that has Malik Qayyum predicting that the Feb. 18 elections are going to be &#39&#39massively rigged&#39&#39.

The timing of the Qayyum tape release, by the New York-based lobby Human Rights Watch (HRW), four days before the polls, has thrown a shadow over the election process.

"It is a very incriminating statement coming from the highest law officer of the country. It has also established that the opposition’s fears are well-founded," said Munir A. Malik, former Supreme Court Bar Association president and frontrunner in the lawyers&#39 movement for the restoration of judiciary. "The people of Pakistan will lose faith in the credibility of the elections. This will further exacerbate the crises which we&#39re in."

Opposition parties have been accusing the government of President Pervez Musharraf of trying to influence the election results in favour of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q), the &#39king&#39s party&#39. Musharraf has major stakes in the outcome of the elections and if the PML-Q does not win he could end up being impeached for getting himself elected as president while still army chief.

However, Musharraf has stood his ground giving out assurances that the &#39&#39mother of all elections," as he called it, would not be rigged. "Despite all the insinuations and apprehensions, the elections will be free, fair, transparent and peaceful. It is my pledge to the nation," he said publicly on state TV.

Musharraf is now armed with a Supreme Court order, passed on Thursday, which validated his proclamation of emergency rule (Nov. 3 – Dec. 16) and made it clear that those chief justices and judges of the higher judiciary who had not endorsed the emergency ceased to hold their offices.

"Leave Nawaz Sharif… I think Nawaz Sharif will not take part in the election… If he does take part, he will be in trouble. If Benazir (Bhutto) takes part, she too will be in trouble (pause)… They will massively rig to get their own people to win. If you can get a ticket from these guys, take it (pause)… If Nawaz Sharif does not return himself, then Nawaz Sharif has some advantage. If he comes himself, even if after the elections rather than before…yes…," says the voice in Punjabi language, which Malik confirmed to IPS is that of Qayyum.

"I heard the tape and beyond a shadow of doubt, it is him," Malik told IPS terming it a "national disgrace".

In the recording, made apparently on Nov. 21, 2007, the day after the announcement of the election schedule, Qayyum can be heard advising an unidentified person on which political party is the best choice to become a candidate for. Refuting the allegation, Qayyum told the French news agency AFP that it was a "conspiracy against Pakistan". He has served a legal notice on the HRW.

According to the press release by the rights group, the recording was made by a journalist during a phone interview with Qayyum. "Qayyum, while still on the phone interview, took a call on another telephone and his side of that conversation was recorded," stated HRW.

An HRW source, requesting anonymity, told IPS: "We received the tape from an impeccable source, well after it was made and put it through strict vetting, verification and authentication process and only after we were satisfied that it was absolutely genuine did we make it public. The process took some time – hence the release of the tape now."

"In the long list of acts of Pervez Musharaf and his so-called caretaker government, to rig the elections with impunity, and ensure that the political parties fully committed to his person succeed in the facade of elections, the audio recording of Qayyum, is yet another (piece of) irrefutable evidence," said former law minister Iqbal Haider.

"Malik Qayyum is known for spilling the beans," said Haider, recalling that in early 1999, while hearing a reference against Benazir Bhutto as a judge of the Lahore High Court, Qayyum openly discussed the case on telephone with the then law minister. "He had made commitments on telephone to convict BB (Bhutto). When the telephonic conversation was exposed in the press, he had to resign prematurely.’’

"He engineered Musharraf&#39s second coup; that success seems to have further inured him, he seems to be doing wrong left, right and centre," said former justice Ahmed, adding that "he should be dealt with firmly" as it is a "grievous offence". According to Ahmed, "even from ordinary criminal law, he&#39s culpable".

Ahmed suggested that not only should the Election Commission of Pakistan "deal" with him but "Musharraf should dispense with his services".

With the president&#39s popularity plummeting to an all-time low, as shown by recent polls conducted by the U.S.-funded International Republican Institute, analysts say the president cannot afford to run a fair poll.

"Rejection of the nomination papers filed by Nawaz Sharif is also rigging, as is putting a ban on certain media people from coming on air," said Hamid Mir, the host of a popular current affairs programme, banned by Musharraf’s dispensation.

According to the government-backed Associated Press of Pakistan, apart from 20,000 local observers, 200 foreign observers have already arrived in Islamabad to monitor the parliament elections and 600 more are expected to arrive before Feb. 18. But according to the interior ministry, foreign observers will not be allowed to visit certain sensitive areas in the province of Balochistan and the North West Frontier Province.

"This is incontrovertible evidence of the regime&#39s intentions about the election and of the unethical individuals it has put into legal offices that require much more probity," said Hussain Haqqani, a close aide of the slain Bhutto and presently director of the Centre for International Relations at Boston University. "Quite clearly, the gentleman is rather brazen in his belief that the constitution and law do not matter."

"The court of public opinion should now decide how he has to be dealt with," concluded Malik, while Ahmed has called for an "all out personal boycott of such people".

"The trends this time indicate that the Pakistani people will resist election manipulation and push back against the long tradition of intelligence services thwarting the will of the people with the help of unethical election commissioners and law officers, like the one caught talking unashamedly about polls rigging on this tape," predicted Haqqani, who is closely observing the situation.

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