ISLAMABAD, Nov 11 The government assured the National Assembly twice on Wednesday that Thursday's election for the first Gilgit-Baltistan legislative assembly would be free and fair after one of its allies and the main opposition party -- which also staged a protest walkout -- alleged the use of official machinery and funds in support of ruling party candidates.

The token walkout by the Pakistan Muslim League-N was second of the day, following one by the entire opposition to protest at what they called inadequate arrangements for the purchase of paddy at a government support price, particularly in the main growing province of Punjab.

“I promise a transparent election,” Pakistan People's Party chief-whip and Labour and Manpower Minister Khurshid Ahmed Shah said about the vote in which 23 general seats of the 33-seat house are at stake, after opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan led PML-N members out of the house for a token walkout against alleged government interference in the election and failure to bring a promised new accountability law.

The election for one general seat has been postponed because of the death of a candidate while six women and three technocrats will be elected later by the directly elected members to complete the 33-seat house, which will later elect a chief minister and legislate on a total of 61 subjects under the Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order enforced in August to give the region a measure of autonomy but not a provincial status because of being part of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir state.

“Our government will hold completely clean and transparent election,” said the minister, who told the house he had returned earlier in the day from the region after taking part in the PPP election campaign.

Chaudhry Nisar said the government had “opened its coffers” for what he called a “drama of election” in which his own party is also one of the major participants along with the PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Q.

But a surprise charge against the government came earlier from its ally Muttahida Qaumi Movement whose member Wasim Akhtar said that government machinery and Baitul Maal funds were being used to influence the election, although the Karachi-based party itself has been accused by rivals of distributing funds to help its recent emergence in the Gilgit-Baltistan politics.

Mr Shah rejected charges of both the PML-N and MQM, saying the government had no plans to rig the election.

Strangely, the PML-Q, which had manipulated a majority in the previous less powerful legislature -- although the PPP had emerged as the single largest party in 2004 polls in what was then called Northern Areas -- neither made any allegation against the government on Wednesday vis-à-vis the election nor joined the PML-N walkout over the issue.

However, both parties had stormed out of the house together earlier after their members of an apparent rice lobby accused the government of failing to do enough for the purchase of the new paddy crop and Food and Agriculture Minister Nazar Mohammad Gondal of failing to satisfy them.

The minister told the house that the federal government's Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation was making arrangements to meet an enhanced target of buying one million tons of paddy, compared with an earlier target of 400,000 tons set by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani after the Punjab government refused to meet its target.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the house that a “real change” in the law and order situation was expected in a few weeks as he wound up a debate on the issue.

He denied the observation of PPP-S chief and former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao that there was a lack of intelligence-sharing among different government agencies in the ongoing war against terrorism and said the agencies were doing well with a focal point to dissect information before being conveyed to relevant authorities for action.