Monitoring Desk
LAHORE: Minister of State on Poverty Alleviation and Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) leader Faisal Karim Kundi has said that his party does not support delaying elections, demanding by-polls in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) on time.
“The PPP contested elections even after former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and when their party leaders were under threat. “So, no excuses should be coined to delay these elections,” he said.
Talking to a local newspaper, Kundi also said that “elections are not a problem but a solution to every problem in the system.” He said that the PPP hoped that elections would be held in time.
PPP fielding candidates in all constituencies
He said his party was fielding candidates in all constituencies in the upcoming by-elections. He hoped that sanity would prevail and other parties under the banner of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) would follow suit.
The minister said they “were never part of any alliance, and their decision to contest elections, contrary to the decision taken by PDM, should not come as much of a surprise to anyone.”
Kundi also said that the PPP had floated the suggestion to the PDM to participate in elections and advised the coalition parties “not to leave any field open.”
He, however, said that “the PDM believed there was no point in exhausting their energy on these elections.”
“The PPP is only an ally of the PDM in the government, and that’s it,” said Kundi.
On the other hand, Maulana Amjad, a spokesperson for Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), said his party was yet to decide whether to field candidates in the upcoming by-polls.
Recently, PDM chief Maulana Fazl Ur Rehman met with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to discuss, amongst other issues, the issue of upcoming by-elections.
It was expected that the PDM would issue a formal statement in this regard.
Fazl against PDM contesting by-polls
Meanwhile, a former PML-N office-bearer familiar with the development said that Fazl, during his meeting with the prime minister, reiterated that the PDM should not contest the by-polls.
He said that both leaders also explored the possibility of jointly contesting elections with all ruling parties after devising a seat-adjustment formula.
The announcement by PPP comes a week after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced that by-elections on 31 vacant seats of the National Assembly would be held on March 19.
Nomination papers were to be submitted from February 10 to 14, which would be scrutinised on February 18, according to a schedule released by the electoral watchdog.
The candidates could withdraw the nomination papers till March 1. Afterward, the election symbols would be allotted to the candidates on March 2.
