ISLAMABAD: Former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf will announce the manifesto of his All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) party for the upcoming elections on Monday.

According to APML’s Central Information Secretary Aasia Ishaque, the former military ruler would also announce the party’s candidates from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Gen Musharraf presided over a meeting of the APML’s parliamentary board at his heavily-guarded Chak Shahzad Farm House on Sunday, said a party spokesman. It is not clear how many seats the party would field its candidates for, but the spokesman claimed that the party had received about 600 applications from all over the country for the APML’s ticket.

Addressing a news conference in Karachi after his return from self-exile late last month, Gen Musharraf chief had announced that his party would field candidates from all the four provinces.

The general had himself filed nomination papers from four constituencies of the National Assembly, NA 32 Chitral, NA 48 Islamabad, NA 139 Kasur and NA 250 Karachi.

The returning officers in Islamabad, Kasur and Karachi rejected his papers on the basis of articles 62 and 63 of the constitution for his act of imposing emergency in 2007 and for keeping judges under unlawful detention. Besides, the former military ruler has been accused of not disclosing his source of income in his nomination papers in which he declared his assets worth more than Rs760 million.

Although the returning officer in Chitral accepted Gen Musharraf’s nomination papers on the grounds that he had not been convicted in any case, his plan to contest polls could still be jeopardised as the returning officer’s decision has been challenged in the high court.