KARACHI: PPP to decide about poll participation ‘at right time’
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Feb 19: Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmad Khuhro has said that the recently held by-elections had proved that free, fair and transparent elections could not be held in the presence of General Pervez Musharraf.
Addressing a press conference in his assembly chamber after the session, Mr Khuhro, who is a senior PPP leader, said his party would decide at an appropriate time whether to boycott the upcoming general elections or challenge the rulers in the field to expose them.
Commenting on the Monday session of the assembly, he said the coalition government had no right to rule any more as it so shaky that even on a slightest protest from opposition, it got the session prorogued.
“They don’t have any consideration for the loss of no less than Rs1.5 million of the public money being the one day cost that incurs in holding a session,” he deplored, and regretted that the treasury side did not let the session continue despite the fact that it was summoned after a long gap of three months and during this recess period, more than a dozen tragic incidents had occurred in various parts of the country and scores of precious lives were lost in these incidents.
The opposition was keen to deliberate upon all these issues on the floor of the house, besides making efforts to find a way to ensure protection to the institutions like judiciary, a reference to the suicide bombing in a court in Quetta killing a civil judge and many other people. This and several other such incidents over the past few weeks had deprived people of the sense of security, he observed.
Mr Khuhro expressed his dismay over the rulers’ indifferent attitude towards the deteriorating law and order situation in the country, and referred to the suicide bombings one after the other, besides major accidents, tragedies and high-profile killings. He deplored that the rulers were still not ready to accept the ground realities.
If the government did not take remedial measures to restore people’s confidence in the state, more institutions and figures might become target of terrorists, he said.
Speaking about the February 10 by-elections in Karachi and Jamshoro, he said the PPP challenged the government despite threats and rigging resorted to by the rulers, and accused Sindh chief minister of adopting an insulting attitude towards the respectable citizens of the province and creating an atmosphere where voters could not dare to come out of their homes to cast their votes.
He also condemned the pro-government elements who resorted to indulging in attacks with firearms during the polling and afterwards and targeting men and women alike. He demanded arrest of all those involved in such attacks and punished according to the law.
“We have proofs of rigging… even presiding officers have conveyed to us in writing that a minister had stamped the ballot papers… Had the house not been prorogued, we would have produced the proofs on the floor of the house,” the PPP leader claimed.
He said the opposition’s protest in the house on Monday was justified because the election officials were still continuing to claim that no rigging had taken place in the by-elections.
Mr Khuhro said the opposition also intended to raise the issues of gangrapes, price-hike, etc for which 95 resolutions and 30 motions had been submitted.Nasrullah Shaji, Deputy Parliamentary Leader of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, told the newsmen that the by-elections appeared to be a ‘rehearsal for the coming general elections’ by the ruling coalition. He wondered that in the previous election for the NA-250, the MQM had bagged 12,000 votes while the turnout stood at about 35 per cent but in the by-election for the same seat, the party claimed to have polled over 52,000 votes even in a turnout of just 5 to 10 per cent.
He condemned the disbanding of Al-Rashid and Al-Akhtar trusts under the instructions of the US and India, and said the organisations had been rendering valuable services to the suffering humanity.
