New resolutions: 10-Parties Alliance meets to choose candidates for elections

The people of Sindh can see through the ruling parties and will not be deceived anymore, says PML-F’s Imtiaz Sheikh.

KARACHI: Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) and other members of the newly constituted 10 Parties Alliance exchanged lists of the candidates they had chosen to contest the upcoming general elections during a meeting held at PML-F House on Monday.

“The alliance will continue to ponder over the names of the candidates in the next few meetings,” said PML-F’s provincial secretary Imtiaz Sheikh in a press briefing. “The names will be released after the candidates have been finalised.”

Condemning the possibility of pre-poll rigging in Sindh, he said that, “the ruling parties and those in the opposition have begun to transfer people to new posts to win votes”. Shaikh explained that the people of Sindh can see through these parties and will not be deceived anymore.

During the meeting, the alliance demanded that new, impartial governors be appointed for all the provinces. “The governor houses of Sindh, Punjab and others provinces, which are supposed to be apolitical, have become the centres of political activities,” said Sheikh. “An interim government needs to be set up in Sindh that involves all the big and small parties of the province,” he added.

When questioned about his brother, Maqbool Sheikh’s decision to join Pakistan People’s Party, he explained that his ideologies were separate from those of his brother. “I will contest elections from Shikarpur if PML-F allows me to do so,” he added.

A number of eminent leaders, including Saleem Zia from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Masroor Jatoi of National People Party and Syed Shah Alam of Awami Tehreek, attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2013.