Bilawal and Zardari ‘at odds’ over election

HYDERABAD/ISLAMABAD:

The delay in the general elections date has laid bare the apparent simmering political differences within the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) after Bilawal Bhutto on Saturday asserted that his allegiance to his father and party Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari was solely limited to the confines of household, independent from political matters.

The Bhutto scion was reacting to a statement attributed to the former president who stated that “completing delimitation exercise was necessary before holding polls”.

Zardari maintained that the ECP is bound to redraw the boundaries of all constituencies after a fresh and updated census. “The ECP would conduct elections as per the Constitution, and my party has full confidence in the chief election commissioner and all ECP members,” he said.

Sticking to the demands of timely elections, Bilawal, however, made it clear that he held his ground when it came to politics, the Constitution, and party policy, putting him at odds with his father's stance over elections.

Addressing the media during a news conference in Badin district, the PPP declared his loyalty to his workers and the decisions of the Central Executive Committee (CEC).

He said that the PPP’s CEC in its last meeting, which was chaired by both the party chairman and the co-chairman, had pondered over two opinions relating to conducting the general elections within 90 days after the dissolution of the National Assembly on August 9.

"The PPP’s legal experts told us that as per the Constitution, the general elections should be held in 90 days."

The remark came in response to the queries about the divergent opinions of both the leaders regarding the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) delay in announcing the election date.

After spending weeks of sharpening its consistent criticism against the postponement of elections, the PPP recently signalled some flexibility in its stance over the election date, apparently embracing a softer tone.

Bilawal and the PPP leadership had previously moved the courts and the interim government to hold polls within 90 days.

However, on Friday, Bilawal suggested extending the exercise to 120 days if not possible within the 90-day constitutional timeframe.

As opposed to the PPP, the PML-N leadership appears to be fine with polls taking place in January or February next year.

Bilawal, who visited the Thatta, Sujawal and Badin districts on Saturday before arriving in Hyderabad after sunset, informed that he will be going to Lahore by road to chair another meeting of the CEC.

He was accompanied by former Sindh chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, ex-information minister Sharjeel Memon and other party leaders.

"If there is any other opinion of someone [about the election date] they can put it forward before me in the next [CEC] meeting."

The PPP's chairman said it is being bandied around that the elections could not be held within 90 days. "But to me, 90 days is too far. The elections should have been organised in 60 days." He questioned if the ECP would take 100 days or 120 days for the purpose.

Commenting on the economic free fall, unbridled inflation and the entailing repercussions for the common people, Bilawal said it is time for the people to stop offering sacrifices for the country and to begin to ask what the state and the government should do for them.

"The time has come for the people of Pakistan to question that we have already offered our part of sacrifices. Now it is our turn."

Replying to a question he said the public will not oppose the idea of allowing the caretaker government to prolong itself in the saddle if they can bring down the price of electricity, the dollar rate, fuel prices and inflation.

"We have no objection to the caretakers but they shouldn't become 'chair-takers' then we will have objections," Bilawal quipped in a veiled warning against giving an unconstitutional extension to the incumbent government.

Read more: Zardari vetoes PPP’s demand of holding polls within 90 days

He also reminded the caretaker setup that they are supposed to implement the policies formed by the outgoing government of the Pakistan Democratic Movement because the law and the constitution barred them from introducing new policies. He believed that the economic crisis is so complicated that it is not going to be resolved soon.

"And if it is going to find a solution it is going to be through the elected representatives of the people who know well the public's problems."

He recalled that during his recent stint as the country's foreign minister, he spent around 18 months in Islamabad, witnessing how the ground realities prevalent in other parts of the country are at variance from the 'impressions' created in the capital.

The PPP's chairman said it is not wise to fan the flames of differences among the coalition partners in the PDM's government, saying the people loathed to see the blame game, divisions and politics of hatred. "They want resolutions to their problems."

Bilawal acknowledged the miseries unleashed by the inflation saying that he noted facial expressions of the people during his rallies in Thatta, Badin and Sujjawal. "The people appeared pained and saddened by inflation and redundancy.

The economic situation is worsening day by day and the common people are worried about arranging meals, sending children to schools and paying for health expenses of the elders besides fuel prices and electricity bills."

He claimed that only the PPP could provide relief to the people because other parties served only the interests of the elite class. "I don't promise that all problems will be addressed at once. But I can assure you that if the PPP is in power, it will be a government of the downtrodden people, labourers and peasants, unlike other parties which install an elitist government."

Zardari vetoes party’s stance

Earlier in the day, Asif Ali Zardari, the president of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) vetoed his party’s consistent stance in favour of conducting elections within 90 days. The former president of Pakistan stated that ‘completing delimitation exercise was necessary before holding polls.’

In a statement, the PPP leader maintained that the ECP is bound to redraw the boundaries of all constituencies after a fresh and updated census. “The ECP would conduct elections as per the Constitution, and my party has full confidence in the chief election commissioner and all ECP members,” he said.

He said that the country and its economy were above everything else and everyone should "put economy over politics as it is the need of the hour".

“The caretaker government should complete all Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) projects as soon as possible and put the country on the path of development,” Zardari said in the statement. “The country is currently going through an economic crisis and for that, we should worry about the economy first instead of politics.”

The SIFC is a hybrid forum that has recently been set up with a mandate to revive Pakistan’s economy and attract foreign investment, aimed at getting rid of foreign bailouts by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other multilateral institutions.

The former PMLN-led government had enhanced the mandate of the caretaker government by making an amendment to the ECP Act of 2017 just before it ended its term by dissolving the National Assembly three days before it could complete a five-year term.

Through the amendment, in Section 230 of the ECP act, the caretaker government has been granted powers to make important decisions on existing bilateral or multilateral agreements.

President Dr Arif Alvi, political parties, lawyers, think tanks and other stakeholders have lately been debating over whether the polls should be held within 90 days, or the ECP should delay polls until the completion of the delimitation process.

The debate began after the previous coalition government comprising Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), PPP and several other parties had notified census results in a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) mere days before it dissolved the National Assembly.

The move was apparently aimed at getting an additional month for the election campaign but it left the ECP and others in a fix. The ECP has not announced a polling date yet even after reducing significant time for redrawing the boundaries of constituencies.

Following the CCI’s decision to dissolve the NA, ECP had first announced that it would complete the delimitation exercise by December 14 but then reduced it to November 30. However, both the dates fall after the 90-day constitutional limit of holding elections once the assemblies are dissolved. The NA was dissolved on August 8.

Earlier, the PTI government dissolved assemblies hoping to have snap polls within the 90-day period in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). However, despite the Supreme Court’s (SC) intervention, polls in the two provinces did not take place.