Key Bhutto aide expelled from Pakistan election race

Larkana, Aug 31: Election authorities here today disqualified a key aide of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto from contesting October's poll, party officials said.
Authorities rejected the nomination papers of Nisar Khoro, Sindh province chief of the Pakistan People's Party, after alleging he had defaulted on a bank loan, they said.

Party officials said he was applying to contest a provincial assembly seat in Larkana, some 1200 kilometers southwest of Islamabad.

Khoro rejected the charge and accused election authorities of targetting PPP candidates for rejection.

He said he had borrowed 2.7 million rupees in 1999, but that he had been repaying the loan and the amount outstanding now stood at less than two million.

Bureau Report