MITHI: The Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Syed Khursheed Shah, has said the Pakistan Peoples Party wants elections to be held on time, though with defections from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and government failure to properly handle the ongoing political crisis early polls are a possibility.

Speaking to media persons in Malani House here on Monday, Mr Shah said that ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif was trying to get out of the Panama Papers quagmire which he himself created.

He accused Mr Sharif of never giving importance to parliament and said that the PML-N leader wanted the corruption cases against him to linger in courts till he completed his term in office, but the Supreme Court did not allow this to happen and disqualified him.

“I and Chuadhry Aitzaz Ahsan tried hard to help him resolve the Panama case issue in parliament and held eight meetings for the purpose, but Mr Sharif did not give importance to parliament,” the PPP leader asserted.

“The person who has no respect for parliament has no right to stay and sit in houses of parliament,” Mr Shah said.

“Everyday, the PML-N lawmakers are quitting their party which is not only damaging the party, but may lead to early elections in the country,” he said.

In reply to a question about PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s hint of possibility of PPP lawmakers quitting parliament to topple the PML-N government, Mr Shah defended Mr Zardari’s remarks and said that if the situation got worse, then holding of elections before time would not be unconstitutional.

He said that the former prime minister after getting into difficulty tried time and again to meet Mr Zardari, but the PPP leader flatly refused to meet him because Mr Sharif did not heed to sincere adviced of veteran politicians and his committed aides.

Coming down hard on PTI chief Imran Khan, the PPP leader said that Mr Khan was getting overconfident, but he was fast losing popularity he earlier gained.

He said the political future of Mr Khan was in great danger because of his changing stances and foul language.

Mr Shah claimed that the Grand Democratic Alliance would miserably fail to give tough time to PPP in the next general elections in Sindh.

All such alliances failed in the past to defeat the PPP in Sindh, Mr Shah said.

He claimed that Mithi town over the past few years had become a modern city because of efforts of the PPP government and the Malani family, including his close friend late Jagdesh Malani, who lived and died for the PPP and the people of Thar.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2017