ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) are among 103 political parties which still do not qualify to contest the coming elections as they have neither held party polls nor have they disclosed details of their accounts.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued on Tuesday the list of the parties which had “not submitted the details of due intra-party elections”, as required under the Political Parties Order (PPO) of 2002, warning that the parties failing to submit certificates of internal elections would not be entitled to obtain election symbols.

The list of the 103 parties — out of the 216 registered with the ECP — which have so far failed to hold party elections also includes the Balochistan National Party-A (BNP-A) and National Party (NP). The BNP-A had held last party election in 2006 and the NP in May 2004.

The PML-Q, which is registered as PML, held its polls in July 2009 and an election has been due since July last year.

The last elections in the PTI and PAT were held in 2002 and 2006, according to the ECP record.

The Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) of Mehmood Khan Achakzai has also failed to hold election within the party since June 2007.

The list also contains the names of the now dysfunctional Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and National Alliance.

Other prominent parties in the list are PPP (Shaheed Bhutto) led by Ghinwa Bhutto, Pakistan Democratic Party (PDP), Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith (Sajid Mir), Jamiat Ulema Islam-N, Pakistan Seraiki Party, Hazara Democratic Party and Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party.

The ECP also released a list of 91 parties which had not submitted the “details of due statements of accounts”, which is also mandatory for applying for symbols to contest elections.

The MQM — the fourth largest group in parliament — is also required to submit details of its accounts to the ECP to become eligible to contest the polls. The party has been submitting the accounts details for the past 10 years, but its statement for year 2010 is still pending, according to the ECP.

The PML-Z, led by Ijazul Haq, has also not submitted the statement of accounts.

Besides them, the Millat Party (which has now been merged into the PML-Q), Sindh National Front, MMA, BNP-A, Sindh Democratic Alliance and Jamiat Mashaikh Pakistan are among the parties and alliances which have neither held election of their office-bearers nor submitted details of their accounts.

It was after the issuance of a similar warning by the ECP in December that the PPP, registered as PPP-Parliamentarians, fulfilled the requirement of party election by announcing on Jan 26 that all its office-bearers had returned unopposed.

The fresh ECP list does not contain the name of the PPP, thus implying that the party had submitted the certificate of the intra-party election, though held only on paper.

Meanwhile, PTI chief Imran Khan expressed his concern over the ECP’s act of accepting “dummy elections” held by some parties, saying that no elections had been held by those parties and mere nominations had been made.

“There was no election and all nominations were made behind closed doors by a handful of people. These were not elections, but selection and nominations. Such elections are actually a part of the rotten political culture which has taken Pakistan to the verge of collapse,” he said. “The whole world laughs when politicians who don’t hold party elections talk about democracy.”

Mr Khan, whose party is in the process of completing its elections, said: “Those not holding elections and making nominations in their parties actually are like monarchs who believe in dictatorship and autocracy. They are worse than dictators.”

The ECP has advised the parties to submit the statements of accounts as well as certificates regarding elections so as to become entitled to get election symbols for the general election.