Opposition invited for talks on EC-related legislation
By Ahmed Hassan
ISLAMABAD, Feb 21: Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani on Wednesday invited opposition leaders to discuss the proposed legislation aimed at empowering the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Mr Durrani was talking to a delegation of journalists which called on him at his parliament house chamber to invite him to a roundtable conference on media freedom in Pakistan.
When asked for his comment on the demand of opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman and PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq for a legislation to make the office of Chief Election Commission independent, the minister said they should come forward and discuss their proposals with the government.
In reply to a query, Mr Durrani said the proposed multi-party conference (MPC) was an 'agenda-less' moot which was based on the humiliation of the PML-N at the hands of the PPP.
About PPP's boycott of Senate and National Assembly proceedings, the minister said: "The opposition wants confrontation but the government will not indulge in any sort of confrontation.”
He also rejected opposition's allegations of rigging in the recent bye-polls.
The minister claimed that the PPP had lost `Sindh card’ and added that politicians from the interior of Sindh were joining the PML.
