TAXILA: Crying foul over “pre-poll rigging”, PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rasheed on Saturday warned of the reaction of the public if the sanctity of the vote is violated.

Senator Rasheed was speaking to the press in Passwal, the home of PML-N’s NA-63 candidate Sardar Mumtaz Khan around 20 kilometres from here.

“If the results of July 25 elections do not reflect the aspirations of the people of the country, there will be a strong reaction,” he added.

The senator said that if the election results do not match public sentiments, those paving the way for a particular political party would have to face the people’s wrath.

In response to a question, he called the treatment of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in prison ‘shameful’ and said this was part of an agenda to push the PML-N to the wall.

When asked about cracks between the party leadership and former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, he said Chaudhry Nisar left the party leadership when they were in troubled waters and issued statements against Maryam Nawaz while she was handling party issues in her father’s absence, while he was in England to see his ailing wife.

He said this attitude was not acceptable to the party leadership.

In response to a question about Chaudhry Nisar’s election symbol, Senator Rasheed quipped that Mr Khan had been interested in the ‘tank’ symbol, but selected the jeep because that was not available.

He said the door of the party is closed to Chaudhry Nisar, who has not just left the party but the party has also left him.

In response to another question he said he joined Sardar Mumtaz Khan’s campaign after being directed by Sharif to support Mr Mumtaz against Chaudhry Nisar.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2018