LAHORE: The PPP says the bill regarding delimitation of constituencies as per the latest census is in fact a trick to delay the 2018 vote, and the party will not fall for it.

“The constitutional amendment bill for allowing re-demarcation of constituencies on the basis of provisional results of the recently held census is a trap for delaying the general elections and we’ll never support such a move,” party’s central Information Secretary Chaudhry Manzoor told Dawn here on Friday.

As the polls are to be held on the basis of the last gazette notification, there are two points worrying the PPP and other elements who wish to see the elections held on time, he said. “If the National Assembly is dissolved after the notification on the basis of the latest census results, the Constitution says polls are to be held within 90 days while the new delimitation process will require six months,” he argued.

Moreover, if any differences were unearthed in random rechecking of five per cent of the provisional census results, as agreed by the federal government in the Council of Common Interests meeting, it could lead to litigation and thus postponement of the elections, he added.

In these situations, those wanting to see the polls held on time would be left in the lurch so the party believed it should not support the constitutional amendment bill in the Senate -- where it held a majority.

Responding to a query about why the PPP leadership was refusing to meet PML-N President Nawaz Sharif, Manzoor said the party did not trust the ousted prime minister over his past record. He claimed the PML-N, through former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, was holding talks with the same forces against whom Mr Sharif was seeking cooperation of the PPP.

Answering a question, he denied the impression that Asif Ali Zardari was rejecting the olive branch being offered by Nawaz only because the PML-N chief had refused to meet the PPP co-chairman in the recent past after an anti-establishment statement of Mr Zardari.

“Had the PPP believed in vengeance it would not have joined hands with the PML-N after Mr Zardari was incarcerated for years and tortured by investigators of the so-called Ehtesab Commission the PML-N government formed in its previous tenure.”

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2017