LAHORE: The PPP still appears indecisive over its policy on formation of the government in Punjab, as none of its leaders is explaining to the media whether the party will support the PML-N in laying claim to the most populous province or not.

“A decision will be taken at an appropriate level and will be shared with the media accordingly,” PPP central Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira told a questioner at a press conference here on Monday.

He would not explain the “appropriate level”, but say that they would sit on the opposition benches.

The media talk followed an introspection wherein party ticket-holders from the region shared their polling day experiences.

Central election cell member Chaudhry Munawwar Anjum, however, told Dawn that the provincial leadership was empowered to devise a policy for supporting any party in the formation of a government in their jurisdictions, and the central leaders will oversee only federal-level issues.

Mr Kaira cited “hate-based politics, media propagation that the fight in Punjab will be between only two parties -- PML-N and PTI, news channels’ sham public surveys and forced defections from the party” as the reasons behind low PPP vote and reduced representation in the elected house.

General Secretary Chaudhry Manzoor said the whole process leading to the polls was tainted and recalled that they had objected to the 2017 census and re-demarcation of constituencies.

Despite all the “gerrymandering” and “manipulation”, Kaira said, the forces supporting Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) failed to secure a clear majority for Imran Khan and feared that now forward blocs would be carved out of opposition parties to ensure smooth running of a PTI government.

He further said that Imran Khan might have won the electoral war, but lost over morality because he was forming the government in alliance with those whom he had called various names such as “the biggest dacoit” of Punjab (a reference to Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi) and “killers of Karachi” (a reference to MQM).

He said the PPP had not become part of any undemocratic agenda in the past nor would it do in the future as it believed in positive politics. He said had the PPP’s policy been contrary to it, the (PTI) government would have been eliminated even before its formation if his party had adhered to the call for boycott of assemblies by some opposition elements.

Mr Kaira said the opposition wished to see Imran Khan accomplish its avowed agenda of ridding the country of loans, introducing a uniform syllabus across all educational institutions, creating 10 million jobs and building five million housing units for the poor.

Chaudhry Manzoor said that Imran Khan had taken another U-turn by going back on his words of not residing in the luxurious Prime Minister House and instead turning it into an educational institution.

Published in Dawn, August 07th, 2018