Wattoo announces joint opposition fight against PML-N

LAHORE: Seven opposition parties will make seat adjustment against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in the upcoming local government elections in the province, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Central Punjab chairman Manzoor Wattoo said on Sunday.

He was speaking to the media after a meeting of representatives of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), the Jamaat-i-Islamai (JI), the Jamiat-e-Ulema Pakistan (JUP), the Majlis e Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) and the Sunni Itthead Council (SIC).

Wattoo said the parties had decided to let their district-level leadership choose candidates to be field against PML-N contestants in the elections scheduled for October 31.

However, PTI deputy organiser Umar Sarfaraz Cheema released a statement to the media denying that his party had agreed to make seat adjustment with the PPP. He said the seven opposition parties had agreed to prevent pre-poll rigging by the PML-N government and to demand resignations of all four provincial members of the Election Commission of Pakistan.

At the press conference where PTI was represented by Punjab Organiser Chaudhry Sarwar, Wattoo said based on the findings of the Judicial Commission and the recent decisions of Election Tribunals, ECP members were no longer justified in continuing their jobs. He also urged the ECP to take notice of disbursement of development funds among PML-N candidates. He said the ruling party planned to distribute Rs20 million each among its candidates. Wattoo said the ECP should probe into the matter and disqualify the PML-N candidates found funding development schemes in their constituencies.

Wattoo also demanded a ‘neutral team’ for administration of elections in the province. He said opposition parties did not trust the provincial bureaucracy to do the job fairly.

PTI Punjab organiser Chaudhry Sarwar said the opposition parties would work together to ensure that the PML-N did not use government officials to rig elections.

JI’s Liaquat Baloch sought reform of the electoral process to ensure transparent elections.

The opposition parties dismissed as ‘anti-farmer’ the provincial government’s agricultural policy. They said they would take part in demonstrations arranged by farmers in future.

The opposition parties also pledged support for traders’ associations’ demand for withdrawal of a withholding tax on banking transactions over Rs50,000 for those not filing tax returns. They said traders were paying generalised sales tax (GST) and getting electricity at exorbitant rates.

The opposition parties also paid tributes to Armed Forces of Pakistan for their sacrifices during the 1965 war and the ongoing war against terrorist outfits.

PPP south Punjab president Makhdoom Ahmad Mahmood, PAT secretary general Khuram Nawaz Gandapur, MWM secretary general Raja Nasir Abbas, JUP Pir Ejaz Hashmi and SIC leader Jawadul Hassan Qadri were also present on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th,  2015.