Pakistan gets 14 parties, not Musharraf’s

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Pakistan’s Election Commission has allowed 14 new political parties to contest the 2013 general elections. But a request from former President Pervez Musharraf’s new party was not taken up.

Musharraf’s application to register the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) — pending for more than a year — was not on the agenda of the Commission’s meeting on Wednesday, Dawn News reported on Thursday.

This was primarily due to two reasons. One, a man claimed that he had registered a political party with the same name in 2006. The second objection came from the Pakistan Freedom Party, which said the symbol of “eagle” sought by APML had been allotted to it. The APML was formed in Pakistan in 2010. Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008 and is now in self-imposed exile in Britain, has pledged to return to the country ahead of the 2013 parliamentary elections.

The 14 parties registered on Wednesday are: Pakistan Ittehad Yaqeen Tanzeem Party, Justice and Development Party Pakistan, Young Blood Christian League, Pakistan Muslim League-H (Haqiqi), Pakistan Dharti Maan Party, Awami Justice Party, Pakistan Patriotic Movement, Sindh Taraqi Passand Party, Allah-o-Akbar Tahreek, People's Democratic League, Awami Jamhuri Ittehad Pakistan, Tahreek Bahali-i-Suba Bahawalpur Pakistan, Pakistan Basic Rights Movement and Tahreek-i-Suba Hazara.

A multi-party democracy, Pakistan has more than 80 major and minor political parties, of which a dozen are on Thursday represented in Parliament. The main parties include the now ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, two factions of the Pakistan Muslim League, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Awami National Party.