ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PT) on Thursday for levelling “baseless allegations” over the postponement of local government elections in Sindh.

The second phase of local body polls in Sindh were put off until Aug 28 by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) due to bad weather, Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Shazia Marri told reporters at a presser and lamented the “abusive and dirty propaganda against the Sindh government”.

Ms Marri, who is also PPP’s central information secretary, said the provincial government didn’t submit any request to the ECP for delaying the elections and noted that Karachi had received record monsoon rains this season.

She claimed that the PTI didn’t even field their candidates in most constituencies for the local government elections.

She also asked the ECP to announce a much-delayed decision in the foreign funding case against the PTI, adding that former prime minister Imran Khan had been criticising the election commission because of this case.

She also took exception to Mr Khan’s criticism of PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari, insisting that the former president and the party had no role in Punjab’s chief minister’s election.

Ms Marri regretted that Mr Khan was trying to divide the nation by playing the religious card.

“If a person joins the PTI, it is considered as halal [permissible] act, but if someone jumps ship, the party says it’s haram [forbidden],” she said.

She said when the PTI won elections, it claimed everything was right but started levelling rigging allegations in case it lost the contest.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2022