LAHORE: PPP leader Nadeem Afzal Chan says his party wants a fair and transparent election instead of ‘selection’ in the February 2024 polls.

He was talking to the media outside the residence of senior PPP leader Naveed Chaudhry here on Tuesday.

Naming no names, Mr Chan targeted PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, saying that the one who was trying to become a favourite of the state should become a favourite of the masses and rely on public support to come into power instead of seeking crutches of the establishment.

Answering a question about the PPP’s future policy of taking other political parties along by striking electoral alliances, he said the party had taken all the democratic forces along during the process of 18th Amendment and introduction of public welfare projects in the past and it would do so in the future too. However, he said the PPP did not want a coalition government in which “one gets his cases quashed at the cost of welfare of the masses,” a reference to the acquittal of Nawaz Sharif in National Accountability Bureau (NAB) cases.

Urges him to go with the masses for power, not establishment

Replying to a question about the PPP demand for a level-playing field, he said his party demanded equal and fair opportunity in the elections for all and not for itself only.

About the joining of the PPP by former caretaker interior minister Sarfaraz Bugti, he said Mr Bugti was invited to join the party when he was a senator and had not been appointed as the caretaker minister. He said even caretaker Prime Minister Anwarul Haq Kakar had been invited to join the party before his appointment to the coveted post.

Mr Chan claimed that if the polls were held in a transparent and fair manner, the PPP would give a surprise result in Punjab too.

Presently, he said the party was competing with the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad-type alliances, a reference to the PML-N joining hands with the JUI-F and the MQM, etc in regional electoral adjustments.

Naveed Chaudhry said he did not see an environment of elections developing in the country. He, however, said that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had become active in the political arena and he would surely create an election atmosphere. He said that none was joining the PPP from Balochistan at the signal of ‘someone’.

Meanwhile, Mr Bilawal visited the residence of Naveed Chaudhry to condole with him on the demise of the latter’s wife Sajida Naveed.

Mr Chaudhry’s son Imran Naveed was also present on the occasion.

The PPP chairman also visited the residence of Edwin Sahutra, the vice president of the party’s minority wing in Punjab, and condoled with him on the demise of his father Barkat Sahutra.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2023