LAHORE: PPP candidate for NA-120 by-election Faisal Mir has said that Imran Khan’s admission of incapability to form a central government in 2013 reflects that the cricketer-turned-politician can only run a hospital and not a national government.

Talking to supporters in a corner meeting in the constituency here on Wednesday, Mir said that Imran has never been a good politician and that main figures of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), including Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Chaudhry Sarwar, Samsam Bukhari and even Dr Yasmin Rashid, earlier belonged to the PPP. This proves the PPP was like a university for political students, he added.

He claimed that PML-N’s candidate Kulsoom Nawaz is likely to be disqualified due to his petition against her nomination papers.

PPP-W: The workers faction of the PPP led by Dr Safdar Abbasi took out an election rally for their nominee in the NA-120 by-polls, former MPA Sajida Mir.

The rally started from Islamapura and terminated at Kareem Park.

Speaking to participants of the rally, Dr Abbasi and slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s political secretary Naheed Khan said that the PML-N and PTI were attempting to give an impression that Lahore was their stronghold while this rally depicted that Lahorites still loved Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter Benazir.

They regretted that the Election Commission of Pakistan was merely issuing notices to violators of code of conduct set for the by-polls and not taking practical steps against them. They also criticised the PPP leadership for what they called wrong policies that led to the elimination of the party from Punjab -- once its citadel.

Dr Abbasi lamented that the PPP that once ruled all the four provinces and Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan had now been confined to a few districts of Sindh.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2017