elections for five National Assembly seats and 25 provincial assembly seats Thursday amid clashes between rival political activists in which several people were wounded, police said. Voting in one National Assembly seat, where former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif planned to stand, was postponed pending a Supreme Court decision on his eligibility. But a party official said Thursday Sharif may not contest the by-election even if the Supreme Court sets aside verdict of the Lahore High Court (LHC) that disqualified him. A PML-N meeting was of the view that Sharif would not contest the by-poll because he doesn't want clearance from the judges who had taken oath under the Nov. 3, 2007 Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO). The PML-N never accepted the PCO judges and has continuously struggled for the reinstatement of pre-Nov. 3 judiciary, a PML(N) official, said adding that accepting the Supreme Court decision, even in favor of Sharif, would mean accepting the PCO court. He said the unconstitutional court will try to prove itself to be independent by deciding in favour of Nawaz Sharif. Meanwhile, violence erupted in at least three constituencies, media reported, with the worst of it in Punjab province where gunmen exchanged fire. “Some armed men virtually tried to stop polling. We arrested four of them and seized some weapons,” police officer Mohammad Kamran Khan told reporters outside a polling station in southern Punjab. The polls close at 5 p.m. The by-elections will not effect the outcome of a Feb. 18 general election in which slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's party won 123 seats in the 342-seat National Assembly and Sharif's party came second with 91. The main party that backs President Pervez Musharraf came a poor third with 54 seats. Bhutto's widower and political successor, Asif Ali Zardari, has formed a coalition with Sharif but their alliance has been strained by differences over the fate of judges Musharraf dismissed last year and over how to handle the president. Sharif wants to see Musharraf impeached and put on trial for treason. Zardari has been less confrontational, hoping Musharraf will step down before too long without the risk of turmoil. Sharif had been expected to win a seat in parliament from a Lahore constituency until a court in the eastern city ruled on Monday he was ineligible to stand, mainly on the basis of an old criminal conviction that Sharif says was politically motivated. The government lodged an appeal in the Supreme Court on Wednesday against the ruing and the Supreme Court postponed the vote in Sharif's constituency. The Supreme Court is due to hold its next hearing into the case on Monday. – with inputs from Reuters __
