LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Punjab Organiser Chaudhry Sarwar has urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to organise local government elections under the supervision of the army or Rangers.

He said the PML-N was conducting “fake surveys” to mislead masses and that the upcoming local government elections would serve as a referendum against the ruling party. He alleged the rulers were again planning electoral fraud.

Speaking to PTI Lahore Organiser Shafqat Mahmood, Sarwar said after the 10th of Muharram the PTI planned to hold an ‘all-opposition-parties conference’ on Oct 27.

He said the PTI never wanted to derail democracy in the country but do politics within the ambit of law and Constitution. He said the PTI would soon submit NA-122 voter list fraud proofs to the ECP. If the commission did not dispense justice, he said the PTI would be compelled to protest to get its democratic rights.

The PTI chairman’s political adviser Abdul Aleem Khan said bogus surveys and fake development projects had become the PML-N’s identity.

Speaking at a PTI public meeting in Union Council-90 on Multan Road, Aleem said the PML-N had failed to serve masses in this two-and-a-half-year tenure. On the other hand, he said, the “self-organised surveys” showed Sharif brothers at the top of the popularity graph.

He said everybody knew army chief Gen Raheel Sharif was the most popular person in the country, who took courageous decisions to put the country on the right track.

The PTI chairman’s adviser on health Dr Yasmin Rashid said the Punjab government’s latest decision of approving 26 development schemes after announcement of local government elections schedule was tantamount to pre-poll rigging.

She said the toothless ECP, which was hand in glove with the PML-N, had turned a blind eye to this “pre-poll rigging”. She also said the government had announced Rs341 billion Kissan Package to rig local government elections.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2015

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