Election politics: Defectors breached ‘trust’, says Raja Riaz

Opposition leader in Punjab Assembly says the turncoats have breached their oath of loyalty with the PPP.

LAHORE:

Leader of the opposition in the Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz said on Saturday that Punjab MPAs who left Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to join the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have become ineligible to be members of the assembly as per Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution.

“We will soon file an application in the Election Commission for the disqualification of the defecting Punjab Assembly members,” he said, while addressing a press conference.

“These turncoats have breached their oath of loyalty with the PPP and therefore can be disqualified for life to contest elections,” Riaz said.

He said that the MPAs crossing over to the other side had no differences with the party leadership. “They have joined the Nawaz league to cash in on the opportunities of electoral politics in their constituencies.”

He further said that these defections will have no affect on the PPP. “We and the PML-Q will rout them in elections.”

The PML-N is a party of traders, they go about wheeling and dealing in politics as if it was a business, he said, pointing out that initially the N-league formed a forward block in the PML-Q and now it was after PPP electable candidates.

“Bilawal Bhutto Zardari or Faryal Talpur never questioned me or Manzoor Wattoo on the defection of these MPAs,” the PPP’s leader in Punjab Assembly said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2013.