RAWALPINDI: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders on Tuesday said the allegations levelled by former chief justice of Gilgit-Baltistan Rana Shamim against former chief justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar should be investigated.

Addressing a press conference, PPP Secretary General Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari and Information Secretary Shazia Marri said the country was being ruled by an incompetent and inexperienced government that did not care about the poverty-stricken people.

The unprecedented price hike has made the lives of the people miserable while the weak economy could be a threat to the national security, they said.

The incumbent government has also shown cowardice by postponing the joint session of parliament, they said.

Mr Bukhari said the condition of the economy was worst and the nation was perturbed over the rising inflation.

“Prices of essential food items are skyrocketing and have gone beyond the purchasing power of the common men,” he said and added that the prices of petroleum products and electricity were being increased day by day.

He said a country whose economy was weak cannot move towards the path of development, adding the economy had weakened due to the poor policies of the incompetent rulers.

Mr Bukhari said the government had first called a joint session of parliament and later postponed by claiming that the session was postponed on the opposition’s suggestion.

He said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari always spoke against terrorists while there was a contradiction in the words and deeds of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

He said PPP will celebrate its foundation day in Peshawar on November 30 and in this regard the party had submitted an application seeking permission to holding the event. But regrettably the deputy commissioner has not yet issued the permission.

He said the PPP chairman would visit Nowshera on November 19 where he would attend a reception arranged by Defence Minister Pervez Khattak’s nephew.

He said out of 191 countries, only 20 were using the electronic voting machine (EVM) and nine of them have recently banned it.

Shazia Marri said not only the opposition parties but also allies of the government had already rejected the use of EVM in the next elections. She said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had also raised 37 reservations on the use of EVM on which the ruling party ministers threatened the commission.

Shazia Marri said people of Pakistan were going through difficult times due to the anti-people policies of the government and they were worried because control of the country was in the hands of selected and incompetent rulers.

She said the chief minister of Sindh had written a letter to the speaker of the National Assembly in May to convene a joint sitting of parliament for not consulting provinces in the meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) but the speaker did not call a session.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2021