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ISLAMABAD, Sunday (AFP)

European Union (EU) election observers have reportedly criticised the Pakistan military government's decision to bar top opposition leaders from next month's polls, saying it "seems to have no legal basis at all."

An EU report quoted by Sunday's Daily Times newspaper here also expressed concern about controversial constitutional amendments by President Pervez Musharraf before the polls, which "institutionalises the presence of the military in the government of Pakistan."

A spokeswoman for the EU Election Observation Mission could not immediately be reached for comment. A diplomatic source said the report quoted by the paper, which is believed to be for internal EU circulation, appeared to be genuine.

"The disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and the new PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz) leader Shahbaz Sharif seems to have no legal basis at all, either in the domestic legislation nor in internationally accepted practice," the paper quoted the report as saying.

A recently-introduced ban on "absconders" from standing in the polls "is widely seen as a person-specific provision targeting the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto," the report said, according to the paper.

The self-exiled Bhutto was banned after failing to return to Pakistan to appear in a corruption case against her.

The October 10 election will be the first since army chief Musharraf deposed Sharif and seized power in a bloodless coup in October 1999.

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