LAHORE: The PPP says the election reforms will remain meaningless until the powers-that-matter continue meddling in the election process. It also criticizes the government for barring Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif from going abroad for his medical treatment.

“All election reforms will remain meaningless until and unless those who meddle in and maneuver the election process continue their practice,” PPP Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira told the media here on Monday after resigning from his office along with general secretary Chaudhry Manzoor and information secretary Hassan Murtaza.

He was replying to a question about the PTI government’s offer for talks on the election reforms.

The resignations by the PPP office-bearers, he said, had been given after completing a three-year term. They were appointed to the offices in 2017.

The stepping down, however, comes at a time when the PPP nominee bagged just 235 votes in the Khushab by-polls held last week.

Says election reforms meaningless if ‘meddling’ continues

Mr Kaira said he had tendered his resignation after (routing of the party in Punjab) 2018 polls but the same had been rejected.

He said the PPP had favoured fair and transparent polls because it’s been the victim of stolen mandate and manipulation aimed at break away its parliamentarians like ‘the Patriots’ back in 2002.

Mr Kaira explained that the PPP had begun a review of party weaknesses in the provinces but declined to share the results with the media, saying the report would be presented to Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, the former prime minister, who had been nominated as chief organiser of Punjab chapter.

Responding to a query, Mr Kaira criticised the PTI government for blocking cancer-survivor Shehbaz Sharif from going abroad for his treatment. He said Mr Sharif had been getting the treatment since he was the CM and his right to health could not be usurped only because he was a guarantor to the return of his brother Nawaz Sharif.

It was true, he said, that the incumbent judicial system was tilted heavily towards those having resources and influence but it was not the duty of just politicians to reform it as the judiciary itself and other institutions should also play their roles. He didn’t agree with the proposition that all people should seek treatment locally, arguing that those who could afford should get treatment from abroad because the hospitals there were technologically better.

The PPP leader told a questioner that though the PPP protested and sought apology from the friends who ‘irresponsibly’ issued show-cause notices to the party, it didn’t leave the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).

He lamented that the party was not invited to the PDM summit post-Senate chairman elections though no final decision on its membership had been taken.

Answering a question, Mr Kaira said that no-trust motion (against Punjab CM) would have been the best option for getting rid of the incumbent ‘inept’ rulers and by now, both the Punjab and federal government would have been sent packing.

Replying to a query, he said the party never closed the door to reconciliation and political dialogue for the closure led to bitterness to the disadvantage of the democratic project.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2021