KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party parliamentary party leader in the Sindh Assembly and senior provincial education minister Nisar Ahmad Khuhro has said that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan should step down from his party office before seeking resignation from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif because there has been rigging in his own party elections.
He said if senior politician Javed Hashmi joined the PPP it would be a moment of great pleasure for the party.
Mr Khuhro, who was speaking at a press conference in his chamber in the Sindh Assembly’s old building on Tuesday, raised a question about Mr Khan’s meeting with the chief of the army staff, saying that if the former was against martial law and challenging the office of the prime minister, he should tell the nation what were his compulsions for meeting the COAS.
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He claimed that Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Dr Tahirul Qadri and Mr Khan were supporters of Article 58-2(B), which had been repealed by parliament, under which elected governments had been sent packing in the past, adding that it was not possible now.
“As far as parliament is concerned, we are all emotional and will face the elements from the front who are against it and the constitution,” he said, adding that the question of formation of a national government did not arise at all.
Mr Khuhro said if the PTI and the PAT were really against rigging in elections, then its remedy lay in electoral reforms and not in the ‘drama’ that he claimed they had been staging from the past 22 days in Islamabad.
He advised Mr Khan and Dr Qadri to have mercy upon Pakistan, its provincial autonomy and its constitution, urging them to adopt the path of negotiations and wind up their sit-ins otherwise anarchy would prevail in the country.
He said after Mr Hashmi someone else from the PTI might come forward and make more disclosures about the party affairs.
Replying to a question, he said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif committed his first mistake by not opening to scrutiny the four constituencies Mr Khan was demanding and the second mistake was allowing participants in the sit-ins to move further which damaged the government.
He claimed that those who did not recognise the constitution and were talking about dissolving the assemblies were pursuing an agenda of dictators.
Dr Qadri did participate in the 2002 elections held under retired General Pervez Musharraf government, but boycotted the polls which were held under a democratic set-up, he said, and asked if Dr Qadri was so concerned about the problems of the people, why he did not take part in elections.
Mr Khuhro said if the elections were rigged by the election commission why they did not raise their voice against the election commission.
The provincial minister said that country leaders had given sacrifices for restoration of the constitution and democracy and no one could usurp the right of vote from the people.
Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2014