Entering the race: Elections would be counterproductive to democracy says Ghinwa

Says PPP-SB not contesting the elections to assume power.

LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party (Shaheed Bhutto) Chairperson Ghinwa Bhutto told a press conference on Sunday that her party was fielding 107 candidates, even though most of them did not have a reputation for winning. 

“We are not contesting these elections to gain power, but to help people,” she said.

Bhutto said local government elections should precede general elections so that power can be consolidated with common people. The upcoming elections will prove counterproductive in that respect, she said. “It is harvest season. The poor farmers will be expected to leave their work for the election campaigns. This will lead them to the verge of starvation, said Bhutto.

She said the Pakistan Peoples Party had declared former dictator Pervaiz Musharaf responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto because he was in power at the time.

“The PPP was in power when my husband was murdered, who should I blame?” she said. There was no hope today for justice in Murtaza Bhutto’s murder case, she said.

Pakistan has faced immense destruction at the hands of PPP leaders, she said. The country needed unity among its people. Bhutto said the caretaker government must try leaders of the previous government for their corruption.

She said the delay in the Iran-Pakistan pipeline project raised a lot of questions.  All corrupt officials must be exposed for what they were and the ban on trade unions must be lifted, said Bhutto.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2013.