Aitzaz to win if Fazl withdraws: Kaira

Says if he could be convener of all parties, why can’t he be their joint candidate

LAHORE : The standoff between the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and Pakistan People Party persisted on fielding a joint candidate for presidential election: both are adamant on fielding their own candidates, allowing PTI’s candidate Arif Alvi an easy win.

Both sides held media interactions in Lahore urging each other to withdraw their respective candidate.

PPP leaders insisted that they would continue “with or without other parties” and rejected an alliance with any other opposition party.

Qamar Zaman Kaira, who spoke at a press conference, said that there would be no alliance with the remaining opposition parties.

He was accompanied by PPP’s presidential nominee Aitzaz Ahsan and Syed Khursheed Shah.

Kaira said that his party might support opposition parties on certain agendas while opposing them on others.



He said that the only reason to field a joint candidate was to symbolically demonstrate that the opposition parties were unified.

PPP, he said, had even asked Maulana Fazlur Rehman to withdraw his nomination and requested him to persuade other parties in the alliance to support Aitzaz’s candidature.

He said that PPP leaders also wanted to meet Nawaz Sharif to get PML-N’s backing, but for some reasons this had not happened.

Kaira said that Aitzaz Ahsan could win if the Maulana pulled out of the race. He said they would, with or without the backing of other opposition parties, move forward with their presidential candidate.

According to him, the PPP had tried to persuade opposition parties to support his candidature but this did not happen.

Despite all odds, he said, PPP still hoped that the Maulana would agree to withdraw in favour of Aitzaz.

He said that, if elected, Aitzaz Ahsan would strengthen the post of the president that had been disempowered, adding that Aitzaz had the distinction of standing up to all dictators.

Meanwhile, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that he had been entrusted by all opposition parties, other than the PPP, to run for the post of the president, hence PPP should reconsider its position.



“Even if I agree to withdraw my name, I will have to talk with all five parties in the MMA and five more in the GDA whereas PPP could unilaterally change its choice.

He said that PPP should avoid giving a walk-over to PTI as they had done in the election for the PM and CM (Punjab) by abstaining from voting during the election. He said that a divided opposition would pave the way for an easy PTI win.

He said that dividing opposition would only damage PPP’s reputation. He said that if all opposition parties could select him as the convener of the APC, why could he not be trusted to run for presidential elections?

During the APC, he said, he had demonstrated his problem solving skills in the face of the conflict between the PPP and PML-N on presidential candidates.

Reiterating his demand, he said that the PPP should withdraw its candidate and instead support him.

He said that the only way to move forward was to field a joint opposition candidate.

Speaking on this occasion, Khawaja Saad Rafique said that the rift in the opposition ranks should be a point of concern for the PPP and Asif Ali Zardari.

If, he said, the opposition hoped to give “this incapable government a positive direction, we need to stay united”.

He said: “We urge the PPP to withdraw their candidate and support Maulana Fazlur Rehman.”

Reminding the PPP that the Maulana had a long association with PPP, he said that if the party supported him now, it would bolster democratic forces.

MPA Hamza Shehbaz also said that they were trying to persuade the PPP to support Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s candidature.