LAHORE: The Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) may be the first party to boycott the general election and a formal announcement may be made soon, claim party sources.

The sources who attended the two-day meeting of the core committee say the party leadership faced a tough time as all the potential candidates maintained that the party had lost its electoral relevance after the removal of sections 62 and 63 of the Constitution from the nomination papers.

“These are the clauses which the party wanted to strengthen for filtering out the corrupt. Now, they have been removed altogether by the parties that have been part of PAT’s struggle to cement them. In these circumstances, what is the purpose of contesting elections? Why have those with the party removed those clauses?”

According to them, “the state institutions which promised independent and transparent accountability of all also came under fire in the meeting but names were avoided on the instruction of the party chief,” says a participant. But it was noted that the entire exercise seemed to target one man and allow others back in the system by removing clauses possibly hampering their entry. In such a situation, PAT should better stay aloof rather than becoming part of the rut, they say.

Later, PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri told a press conference that articles 62 and 63 had been made toothless. “Institutions such as police, NAB and FIA must be abolished if the plunderers have to be in power again,” he said.

He said the very principle under which Nawaz Sharif was disqualified had been bulldozed. “This means laws are meant for those who have no reach to assemblies. With changes to the nomination form, doors of assemblies have been opened for the corrupt elements,” he said.

He claimed that their struggle for electoral reforms was the main cause of the Model Town massacre.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2018