ISLAMABAD, Jan 10: President Pervez Musharraf says steps have been taken to hold free, fair and transparent elections and warned that no agitation will be allowed before or after the polls.

Dismissing allegations about rigging, he said there was a need to show ‘civilised behaviour’. “But one should be very clear. We will not allow any agitation, before or after the elections,” the president said at a weekly television programme, “Aiwan-i-Sadr sey”.

“As a nation we ought to be ashamed while making allegations about rigging ... are we a banana republic and even unable to hold a free, fair and transparent election,” he asked.

The president said that local bodies would not be suspended. “Should it mean we should suspend the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies when the local bodies’ polls are held.”

He said the Election Commission had further improved the system of conducting impartial elections and any bug in the system had been removed.

President Musharraf described the Chief Election Commissioner as an ‘honourable person’ and said he had met him only once when he made an official call on him after assuming charge of his office.

He said as part of the improved system the returning officers would now announce the results. When asked why were the presiding officers not allowed to do the same, he said it would just create chaos as there were around 200 polling stations in a constituency and a candidate might win from one and lose in other. “This will just create confusion.”

The president described as ‘baseless’ talks about ghost polling stations and said that there were over 64,000 notified polling stations across the country which could not be changed.

“If there is any ghost polling station it must be pointed out. The Election Commission will take notice of it,” he said, adding that the allegations of ghost polling stations and rigging were indications of defeat.

He said that development and progress achieved over the past eight years was unprecedented and much more than the achievements made over the past 50 years.

“There are several development projects being carried out across the country,” he said and added that he being a moderate person wanted to take the country forward on the path of development.

Answering a question, President Musharraf said that judiciary in Pakistan was completely free and judges of the superior courts were performing their duties.

He said the media in the country was also free. However, he described the steps taken in the recent past about the media as “need of the hour”.

The president said that the media and people were the best observers of the upcoming elections. He expressed the hope that the media would do a balanced and impartial reporting of the elections.

About the promotion of culture of tolerance in politics, he said there should be a balanced culture in the assemblies, adding that the Speaker National Assembly and Chairman Senate had a vital role to play in this respect.

The president was of the view that there should be strict rules and regulations to check rowdyism in parliament, with Speaker National Assembly and Chairman Senate having powers to take strict action.

Answering another question, he said that the formation of National Security Council was to ensure checks and balances in the system.He said that in his view democracy was the best system where the people took their decisions, but the level of democracy achieved by the developed world took centuries and “we need some more time to reach that level”.

It may be mentioned that the programme aired on Thursday had been recorded on December 27, the day PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto had been assassinated in Rawalpindi.—APP