Islamabad: The head of the European Union's (EU) election observer team for Pakistan arrived in Islamabad on September 30 as the government warned observers of the October 10 vote against making pre-poll judgements.

John Cushanahan is heading 52 EU observers, one of the largest EU deployments ever to monitor elections. Another two dozen observers from the Commonwealth have been in Pakistan since last week to monitor the Parliamentary polls, the first since a military coup three years ago.

Information Minister Nisar Memon had on September 29 warned observers against making judgements ahead of the vote, suggesting that they risked compromising their neutrality.

His comments came after an internal EU briefing paper was leaked to a Sunday newspaper. The existence of the document, but not its contents, were confirmed by Cushnahan in a statement issued on September 29.

According to extracts published by the 'Daily Times', the EU briefing criticised the barring of ex-Premiers Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz from the polls, and challenged other election restrictions including the ban on absconders and non-graduates.

It also criticised the National Security Council, a civilian-military body set up by President Pervez Musharraf to oversee future governments, and other constitutional changes by the military ruler.

EU observers have refused to make any public comment on the election process. Cushanahan during an earlier visit in August stressed that the EU team would not make its observations public before the vote.