Islamabad: Pakistan has charged the European Union (EU) with overstepping its mandate and violating its own code of conduct by criticising the conduct of recently-held elections in the country.

The government had officially conveyed its displeasure over the EU poll monitors report to a number of EU ambassadors stationed in Islamabad, officials said.

The officials said there is no reference in the EU Code of Conduct mandating its missions to discuss the merits or demerits of a country's Constitution.

"It was not for the EU mission to comment on whether President of Pakistan should have the power of dissolving the National Assembly and whether Pakistan should have a National Security Council. These issues do not fall in the purview of an election observer mission," the officials were quoted as saying by local daily 'Dawn'.

The EU mission in its preliminary report said "pre-poll manipulation" by President Pervez Musharraf by bringing in new electoral rules and constitutional amendments barring top political leaders from contesting the polls marred the credibility of the general elections.

PTI