Disqualifying PM: JI slams PPP, PTI for contacting ECP

Qamar Zaman Kaira says PTI and PPP have no electoral alliance

ISLAMABAD/MULTAN: The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) criticised on Sunday the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for separately getting in touch with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for disqualifying the Prime Minister over the Panama Leaks issue, insisting that the joint opposition was not taken on board.

Meanwhile, a senior PPP leader said that his party and PTI had no electoral alliance and they were only unified on the issue of Panama Leaks.

“The joint opposition agreed to set up an independent commission over Panama Leaks, but the two parties are surprisingly flying solo,” Acting Ameer of JI Liaquat Baloch told The Express Tribune.

Baloch said that the joint opposition had suffered a setback because of this unilateral action by the PTI and PPP, adding that the situation benefited the government.



“The two parties had already expressed their reservations over the ECP, but even then they approached it, leaving the joint opposition in a fray.”

When asked about JI’s future strategy, Baloch said that he had contacted Leader of the Opposition Syed Khursheed Shah and PTI’s Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi and they had assured that the opposition parties would meet again after Eid. If the parties fail to break the deadlock on the issue, then JI would devise its own strategy whether to support PTI or not.

He said that the JI’s anti-corruption campaign’s next phase would start from Rawalpindi soon after Eid.



Meanwhile, veteran PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira told journalists in Multan that PTI and PPP had nothing in common other than a campaign against corruption.

He asserted that the PTI and PPP have no electoral alliance and that the two parties were only unified on the issue of Panama Leaks.

Citing the Supreme Court’s rejection of the government’s contentions on the issue of ToRs, Kaira said that the opposition was justified on the terms of reference (ToRs) on the issue of Panama Leaks.



“We just want a thorough investigation on Panama Leaks.” Kaira said that if Shairf family believed that allegations against them were not true, why were they hesitant about starting an inquiry on Panama Leaks.

“We are reorganising the PPP and five committees have been constituted in this regard,” he added.

Public opinion, Kaira said, was always taken into consideration in connection with party reorganization.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2016.