LAHORE: Former National Assembly speaker and PML-N leader Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said on Thursday that the party has not yet finalised any candidate for the upcoming Feb 8 elections for national or provincial assembly seats. However, he said former parliamentarians would be given preference in the allocation of party tickets.

Speaking to the media outside the party’s central office, where interviews for hopefuls for Lahore’s 14 National Assembly and 30 Punjab Assembly seats were conducted, Mr Sadiq said that only the official party ticket-holder should contest the polls, discouraging independent candidacies against the party’s decisions for specific seats.

When asked about PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s repeated criticisms of PML-N leadership, mr Sadiq avoided direct comments, stating his good relationship with Asif Ali Zardari and refraining from making statements that could strain that relationship.

Mr Sadiq asserted that the elections would be held on time come what may.

He alleged that the PTI had attempted to postpone the polls by filing a petition against taking returning officers from among the civil servants but it failed to achieve the target (as the Supreme Court suspended a Lahore High Court verdict in the case).

He told a questioner that Nawaz Sharif would be PML-N’s candidate for the office of prime minister and even Shehbaz Sharif desired that.

Former federal minister Javed Latif said that the Charter of Democracy provided a peaceful and stable political environment for 10 years but those who wished to create a third party ruined the national system within four years.

He said that attempts were being made to make the general election controversial by (false) reports of snatching nomination papers from PTI candidates.

He regretted that the masterminds of the May 9 attacks were not being punished rather, he alleged, they were being facilitated [in the criminal case proceedings].

He also lamented that the Election Commission of Pakistan was ‘unduly’ prolonging the PTI’s foreign funding case.

Likewise, none was investigating the audio leaks involving some judges facilitating the PTI leadership in various cases and instead only the question of spotting the source responsible for leaking the audios was being raised.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2023