Pakistan

PPP circumvents CoD to get even with PML-N

The PPP has decided to field independents as party candidates in the Punjab by-elections against the PML-N.

Asim Awan July 11, 2010

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has decided to field independents as party candidates in the Punjab by-elections against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

This is in violation of the Charter of Democracy (CoD) that was signed between former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in May 2006 in London. However, the PML-N has been supporting independent candidates in by-elections on seats vacated by the PPP. Thus, the parties have technically observed this clause but practically violated it by supporting independent candidates.

The PPP has decided to support Mazhar Ahmed Qureshi in NA-68 Sargodha against the PML-N’s Shafqat Baloch. This seat was vacated by PML-N MNA Javed Hasnain when his degree turned out to be fake. In PP-34 Sargodha, the PPP is supporting Fayyaz Othi against PML-N MPA Rizwan Gill whose degree was also forged.

According to a PPP leader, various factors have prompted the party to make this decision and that the PPP was under pressure from the party’s local chapters who did not want to the field to be open for the PML-N. “The PML-N violated the CoD by fielding an independent candidate against Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s brother and it was an embarrassing situation for the PPP when Qureshi’s brother lost. The independent candidate later joined the PML-N,” he said. Citing another occasion, he said that the PML-N had openly supported Nawabzada Iftikhar against the PPP’s Jamshed Dasti in the Muzzafargarh by-election.

Splits also seem to have emerged in the Sargodha chapters of the PPP and the PML-N over awarding party tickets. PPP’s divisional coordinator Malik Azizul Haq is campaigning against PPP-supported Othi in PP-34 because the party decided not to field Haq’s daughter as their unofficial candidate. In a meeting held at the Zardari House in Islamabad on Saturday, Haq had told Zardari’s sister Faryal Talpur that he will not support Othi. Punjab senior minister Raja Riaz arrives in Sargodha on Monday in a last-ditch effort to convince Haq to campaign for the PPP-supported candidate.

Senior PML-N leader Chaudhry Abdul Hameed is opposing Tabrez Gill, the party candidate for PP-34, and supporting the independent candidate Ijaz Kahloon because Hameed’s son was not awarded a ticket.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12^th, 2010.

COMMENTS (2)

Sheikh Arif Mehmood | 14 years ago | Reply politcal parties should have learnt lesson from the past, the shocking situation was seem over the past few days any candidate whose degree was declared fake,condemned by the leaders throug statements only,practically rather than expelling them from the party,relatives of these fordgers were awarded the tickets in by-election, which shows clear contradiction between thier saying and deeds

Misbah Qayyum | 14 years ago | Reply There is no denying the fact that the chief minister is heading a coalition government with the PPP in the province, with which he does not see eye-to-eye. With him preferring to keep most of the key portfolios with him, the cabinet of the largest province has not been expanded; mainly to keep the PPP out, as that party alleges. The Punjab government under Mian Shahbaz Sharif as its chief executive has badly underperformed. Despite schemes like "sasti roti" and the hard work being put in by the chief minister the provincial government has failed to deliver. The PML-N, judging by its past record on this score, should have been doubly careful in handling the issues.

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