Assurance for the govt: Opposition vows not to derail system, but urges fresh polls

PML-N’s losing candidate advises the PM to end confrontation with the judiciary, overcome power, security crises.

ISLAMABAD:

In what may be a rare assurance for the beleaguered government, the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) promised on Friday not to indulge in any “conspiracy” for coming into power, but urged the government to immediately announce fresh parliamentary polls to end the “looming confrontation with state institutions, including the judiciary.”

“We will not become part of any covert conspiracy to gain power. We will seek a verdict from the people,” PML-N’s prime ministerial candidate Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan Abbasi said in a speech to the National Assembly after the house elected Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) leader Raja Pervaiz Ashraf as the new prime minister.

“But today should have been a day of reconciliation. You should have said that ‘we have completed four and a half years, so let’s have fresh elections’. This is what the people would have had trust in,” Abbasi said, addressing the new prime minister and his party.

While there were no explicit promises, newly-elected Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf did say, in his address, that one of his key areas of focus would be to ensure that the next elections are held in a free and fair manner.

The PML-N leader warned the government that the public’s patience with their way of governance was running out, and things could get worse if immediate measures were not taken.

“Before the people of Pakistan come out on the streets, you should come forward with an announcement of elections … this is the way if the (democratic) system is to be saved,” Abbasi said.

Hitting out at his opponent, Abbasi said it was unfortunate that a person accused of corruption and responsible for the miseries of people, by failing to control power outages as federal minister, was given the top slot. Prime Minister Ashraf served as the water and power minister between 2008 and 2011.

“Isn’t this another round of confrontation with the judiciary that a person whose case was once in the Supreme Court has been appointed the prime minister?” Abbasi said.

“The people have completely lost hope in the system … they don’t see any ray of hope,” he said.

Abbasi had some words of advice for the new premier too.

“End confrontation with the judiciary, write the letter to Swiss authorities [to reopen graft cases involving President Zardari], try to overcome power cuts, and take steps to improve the crippling law and order [situation],” Abbasi said.

He did not, however, say whether the opposition would support the government if all these objectives were achieved.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 23^rd, 2012.