Kundi takes a dig at Fazl over election remarks

PPP leader says holding of polls within 90 days was highlighted during cabinet meeting

ISLAMABAD:

Responding to JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, PPP Information Secretary Faisal Karim Kundi emphasized that his party had consistently advocated for holding elections within 90 days following the dissolution of the National Assembly, underscoring it as a constitutional requirement.

Earlier, Maulana Fazlur Rehman had cited cold weather and snowfall as reasons for the potential difficulty for people to cast their votes in the proposed month of January. During a news conference in Multan, he reiterated that the upcoming elections would adhere to the new delimitation of constituencies, a process he noted as time-consuming and likely to impact the election schedule.

In a similar vein, the JUI-F chief had recently stressed the importance of prioritizing the country's economic improvement over holding elections during the proposed January timeframe. He also expressed concerns about the challenges posed by recent incidents of terrorism in the country, suggesting that the prevailing law and order situation portrayed Pakistan as not a peaceful country.

Read Fazl slams ex-allies for seeking early polls

Kundi reiterated that PPP had consistently raised the issue of conducting elections within 90 days of the assembly's dissolution, asserting its constitutional significance. He mentioned that if PPP leader Benazir Bhutto had not been martyred, elections would have taken place on January 8, 2008.

Addressing Fazl directly, Kundi questioned the motives behind the JUI-F chief's stance on avoiding elections and remarked that democratic-minded individuals do not seek excuses to evade polls. He called upon Fazl to clarify the circumstances surrounding his support for former dictator Pervez Musharraf's elections, implying that there may have been undisclosed incentives.

Without naming the PTI, Kundi credited PPP's year-long march led by Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto with pressuring the "puppet government" to relinquish power. Regarding Fazl's previous long march against the PTI government, Kundi raised questions about the motivations behind its initiation and conclusion, asking whose directives Fazl had followed.