KARACHI, April 5: Criticising returning officers for putting irrelevant and controversial questions to election candidates, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain said on Friday there was no harm in extending the date for general elections by a month.

Mr Hussain, however, clarified that he was not calling for a cancellation of elections because he believed that elections were necessary for the country. His party was fully prepared to contest the elections.

Speaking by phone from London, he told a press conference at the Lal Qila ground that scrutiny of over 10,000 nomination papers in a limited time was an uphill task for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). Therefore, a postponement of 15 to 30 days would not be wrong, provided there was consensus over the issue among the political parties.

He said the manner in which the returning officers were scrutinising the nomination papers filed by the candidates appeared to be an attempt to disqualify them, creating doubts about the timely holding of the elections.

The MQM leader was so irked by the attitude of the returning officers that he said that those putting personal questions to the candidates were themselves violating articles 62 and 63 of the constitution.

Quoting verses from the holy Quran, he said the returning officers had every right to vet the nomination papers, but by putting personal questions they seemed to be ridiculing the candidates.

Mr Hussain said that even women candidates were being asked controversial questions and the nomination form of a candidate was rejected because he had allegedly written a column deemed to be against the ideology of Pakistan.

“The Supreme Court of Pakistan and the parliament should explain the real meaning of the ideology of Pakistan as it is vague and not clearly defined anywhere,” the MQM chief remarked.

He was of the view that it was not the task of the ECP or the returning officers to point fingers at candidates’ faith or peeping into their private lives in the name of so-called scrutiny.

In a sarcastic tone, he requested Chief Election Commissioner retired Justice Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim to appear on television and tell the nation about the right way of offering ‘namaz-i-janaza’ to end the differences among different sects on this particular matter.

He said that all the parties should form a committee comprising members from each of them to test the knowledge of the returning officers.

“Those who give correct answers should be given the right to conduct a scrutiny and others should be sent home.”