SUKKUR, March 27: The additional secretary of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, said on Wednesday that an independent election commission should be set up to decide whether Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto could participate in the elections or not.

He further said that if the elections were conducted without the two big parties of the country, they would be meaningless.

He was speaking at a press conference at the residence of Dr A.G. Ansari at Jacobabad on Wednesday.

Mr Ahmed said that the Supreme Court had given three years time to the government after which the constitution of 1973 would be restored.

COP INJURED: A policeman and two passengers were injured by armed bandits on Wednesday.

The armed bandits in the garb of passengers boarded on a passenger bus coming to Sukkur from Ghotki. When the bus reached near Sangi, they took out their arms and made the passengers hostage.

On the resistance of a police constable, Mr Riaz, and two passengers, Muharram Ali Shaikh and Ms Nawab Khatoon, the bandits opened fire and injured them. The injured were taken to the Rohri Taluka Hospital.