Backtracking: PPP also boycotts NA-250 re-poll

Leader justifies boycott by saying the Election Commission had not heard the party’s grievances.

KARACHI:

Taking a lead from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Jamaat-e-Islami, the Pakistan Peoples Party has also decided to boycott the re-polling in NA-250 (Karachi-XII), backtracking on its earlier decision to take part in the polls at any cost.

Speaking at a joint news conference on Saturday, PPP Karachi division general secretary Najmi Alam and party candidate for NA-250 Rashid Rabbani justified the boycott saying the Election Commission had not heard the party’s grievances. “Despite our concerns, ECP did not call our candidate to the meeting held in Islamabad, where both MQM and PTI leaders were invited,” they maintained.

“Our party cannot participate in this situation… we will boycott the re-polls,” the leaders added.

The move contradicted an earlier statement of the PPP Sindh general secretary Taj Haider. Urging party workers and supporters to take part in the re-polls, Haider had termed boycotts of the electoral process ‘counter-productive’.

“Boycotts do not help the democratic cause…  It is only through participation that the excesses and crimes of anti-democratic elements can be brought out,” he had maintained.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2013.