‘Public deceit’: Midterm election impossible until prime minister resigns, says Shah

Opposition leader says govts always suffer when they lie

QUETTA:

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Ahmed Shah on Saturday ruled out the possibility of mid-term elections in the country until Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif steps down from office.

Such a vote would be against democratic norms as it would amount to giving in to the wishes of a small segment of the population, an allusion to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT). Shah, who is also a senior leader of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), was addressing reporters in the Balochistan capital at the residence of PPP’s provincial leader Sadiq Umrani.

“Governments always suffer when they lie. Nawaz lied to the people when he claimed that he would address the power crisis and end load-shedding. This never happened nor does it seem probable anytime soon,” Shah remarked.

He said the prime minister should tell the truth and stop making tall and impossible claims regarding electricity, inflation, law and order and economic prosperity. “The government is currently facing multiple challenges since it lied to the people on many occasions. The politics of truth always gets better results.”

Shah said it was a planned conspiracy to cancel the visit of the Chinese president. “Imran Khan was used to cancel the said visit. The world does not want a prosperous and peaceful Pakistan and that is why conspiracies are being hatched against the country,” he said.

The PPP, according to Shah, stands with democracy for which it has been struggling hard through the decades. The opposition leader claimed that his party was the first to take the initiative regarding issues in Balochistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2014.