Raza Rabbani announces election boycott at a press conference. PHOTO: EXPRESS
It was in the air since Wednesday.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was incensed by the rescheduling of the presidential election. In its knee-jerk reaction to the Supreme Court decision, the party said on Wednesday it could pull out of the race. And it took the PPP a day to make up its mind.
“We’ve no option but to boycott the election because the Supreme Court did not give us the right to present our point of view,” Senator Raza Rabbani, the PPP’s erstwhile presidential candidate, told a hurriedly-called news conference on Friday.
“Today’s decision is a part of our struggle against the civilian and military dictatorship,” said Rabbani, expressing concern that the presidential election has been rescheduled, even though the Election Commission of Pakistan was an independent body.
According to Rabbani, presenting the election schedule was the ECP’s and not the Supreme Court’s job. The Commission had earlier refused to reschedule the election on the request of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). “After the 18th constitutional amendment, we expected the ECP would be free and fair, but time has again proved that it is no more a free institution,” he added.
Senator Rabbani claimed that the PPP had accepted the May 11 election results to ensure the continuation of democracy in the country, and that this boycott, too, was a part of the struggle against anti-democratic forces. It is unfair, he said, that not all parties are being heard, and decisions are being taken solely on PML-N’s bidding.
“This decision by the SC and the ECP is seen as a move towards ‘one-unit’, which is dangerous for the federation,” said Senator Rabbani. “The president is a symbol of the federation and this decision is a blow to that federation.”
The PPP’s boycott was endorsed by its long-time ally, the Awami National Party.
“The ANP will also boycott the election due to the change in schedule,” Senator Haji Muhammad Adeel told The Express Tribune. “Our legislators will not cast their vote in any assembly.”
“The political value of the presidential election was lost when the Supreme Court ordered rescheduling of the polls without hearing out the other parties,” he added.
“We are boycotting the election because we believe it will not be free and fair,” he said and demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, saying that the Election Commission of Pakistan had failed to play its due role. Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid spokesman Senator Kamil Ali Agha said his party would also abstain from voting on July 30.
‘Legally unfounded’
During the press conference, Senator Rabbani was flanked by senior PPP leaders, including Khursheed Shah, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Qamer Zaman Kaira and Farhatullah Baber.
According to Fahim, the PPP consulted all allied parties before announcing the boycott. In this vein, Aitzaz Ahsan claimed that the top court’s judgment was based on “PML-N’s desire and not grounded in legality’.
“I was shocked to hear of the decision, as the court did not even bother consulting the ECP and other concerned parties,” said the lawyer, adding that although Ramazan’s last leg was cited by the SC to change the date, the Constitution could not be changed even in the state of war.
Aitzaz said the PML-N was afraid of Senator Rabbani’s well-prepared election campaign, and had taken this step to avoid defeat.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 27th, 2013.
COMMENTS (9)
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@ Jibran If PPP was serious about its victory it should have fielded Asif Zardari, the way it did in 2008, and not Raza Rabbai-who was not even granted a ministerial slot during the PPP's tenure. Gone are the days when the Bhuttos were fooling & looting the nation. The days of Zardari are numbered and It is high time to recover the loot when immunity will be withdrawn under article-248 of the Constitution and the cases of Swiss money laundering, ARY gold smuggling and Cotecna kickbacks will be reopened.
If PPP was certain about its victory it would have fielded Asif Zardari and not Raza Rabbani, who was not given any ministerial slot during PPP's corruption & cronyism tainted tenure. . The days of Asif Zardari enjoying the presidential immunity are numbered and he will soon start facing the mega corruption cases of ARY Gold Smuggling Scandal, Agosta Submarine Kickbacks Scandal, SGS/Cotecna Kickbacks Scandal and Swiss Money Laundering Scandal. Every single paisa looted by Asif Zardari and his cronies will soon be recovered InshaAllah. . This boycott is just another failed attempt of PPP to become political martyr (Siyaasi Shaheed).
One must stand up and speak out if some wrong is done. PPP has done the right thing. We need to be objective and must not criticize only for the sake of it.
This party is as usual to its spectacle of negativity in order to divert people and media's attention from its massive corruption that it has destroyed the country with
@A Pakistani: You didn't need to post the comment. If you had just written your name with an empty message it will have been equally clear. Naan league is keeping up with its tradition of bulldozing everyone. I hope its fate this time would be different.
Its ironic that PPP didn’t nominated Raza Rabbani as its canidate when it had numbers in their favour to get him elected and instead they chose a corruption tainted person for the slot and now when they have ZERO chance of winning,they are creating undue fuss. They should file a petition in court if they think something illegal is being done. According to constitution new President should be elected a month before sitting presdent’s tenure ends. Presidential elections can be held ahead of that date but not beyond that date. So clearly nothing illegal is being done here.
"Grapes are Sour!" Gone are the days that the Bhuttos were fooling & looting the nation. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all the time! RiP PPP.
Knowing that PPP were not going to win the 2013 election, PPP should have boycotted the election. That way they would have created chaos resulting in possibly winning the election. A little late to boycott now.