Islamabad, Oct 02: After initial embarrassment over the "interim report" leaked to the press, the European Union team here to monitor the October 10 general election in Pakistan, today admitted the report contained preliminary observation for consideration by the EU Parliament. Retracting from his earlier statement that observations of the EU mission published by a Pakistan newspaper last weekend was part of a "briefing", the chief of the poll monitors team John Cushnahan said the contents published by the daily were genuine and formed part of preliminary observations. Cushnahan, who rushed to Islamabad yesterday as part of a damage control exercise, had said in a statement soon after his arrival that the comments attributed to EU interim report by the newspaper questioning the legality to bar former Pakistani Prime Ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif from contesting the polls was part of a "briefing" and not an interim report as claimed by The Daily Times.

The EU report also criticised the constitutional amendments and the new electoral rules brought in by President Pervez Musharraf, ahead of the polls. "It is part of the ongoing briefing of the EU commission in Brussels", said the statement. Reacting to the report, the military ruler had asked the EU poll monitors to confine themselves to monitoring elections than making comments of political nature.

"They did not know about the political culture of the country and see Pakistani political culture from the eyes of the British system", Musharraf had said.

Bureau Report