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| January 25, 2007 | Thursday | Muharram 05, 1428 |
No polls in near future: Pagara
KARACHI, Jan 24: Chief of the Pakistan Muslim League (Functional) Pir Pagara foresees imposition of presidential system in the country and says there is no likelihood of general elections in the near future.
Talking to newsmen after a meeting with former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who had called on him at the Kingri House here on Wednesday, the veteran politician said that people who had voted for General Pervez Musharraf under duress would now happily vote for him. However, he said, whenever general elections were held, his party would be ready for a contest. “Every party is gearing up for the elections and we are doing the same… and people are joining our party,” he added.
About General Musharraf’s re-election, Pir Pagara said it was up to the president whether he wanted to get himself re-elected from the present set-up or the next one.
About the possibility of his party forming an electoral alliance or working out seat adjustment arrangements with other parties, he said: “We will contest election in Sindh on a give-and-take basis because we have more voters and not many candidates.”
Pir Pagara said the political future of the ruling PML and its chief, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, appeared to be bleak, and remarked: “The Q-League will disappear just like the Convention League and the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI).”
He made it clear that the PML-F would not welcome into its fold Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim even after the dissolution of the ruling PML.
Referring to his party’s participation in the multi-party conference (MPC) being convened by the PML-N, he sarcastically said that he had neither received an invitation nor a free ticket to attend the London meeting. But, he added, he would like to attend the conference if a free ticket was provided. Expressing concern over the law and order situation during Muharram, he predicted that “an untoward incident” was likely to happen on the 8th of Muharram that might disturb the security situation in other parts of the country.
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