LAHORE, Feb 27: Federal Law Minister Babar Awan has said that by parting ways with the PPP, the PML-N is trying to steer the country towards the general election before the Senate polls due in March next year.

Speaking at Meet-the-Press programme here on Sunday, he resolved the PPP would foil all the attempts to hold midterm polls as “the Constitution doesn't allow any short-term electoral exercise”.

He likened the campaign for snap polls to destabilisation of democracy and pledged to thwart all such moves.

Referring to the long march the PML-N had held in March 2009 to restore the judges deposed by the then president, Musharraf, the minister said there was no room for a long march before March 2012 and even if anyone tried to hold it, it would become a “wrong march”.

He said the 2012 Senate elections would be held under the present dispensation in which the PPP and allies stood bright chances of winning a majority in the upper house.

He told a questioner he would not say which force gave this agenda to the PML-N. He said the masses wanted rule of law and the Constitution as well a democratic system in the country so that the elected government should complete its constitutional tenure of five years.

Admitting that the PPP committed a blunder by winning Q League MPAs' loyalties to form government in Balochistan, he said it did not mean the PML-N should commit the same mistake in Punjab as “two wrongs do not make a right”.

He avoided responding to a query regarding the PPP efforts to find turncoats in the PML-N during the governor's rule. Laila Muqaddas, an MPA of the PML-N, had switched loyalties and joined the PPP ranks at a press conference with PPP leader Qasim Zia.Answering a question about fears of martial law if the political forces repeated their past mistakes, Awan said there was no force now to form political alliances (like the IJI established by the ISI in the late 80s) and the political parties would have to establish their ability to run the system.Parrying a question about laying claims to the office of opposition leader in Punjab currently with the PML-Q, he said all the opposition parties in Punjab would go together.

Asked if his government would move court to get vacated the stay order that restored the Shahbaz-led government, he said he would not comment on it for fear of contempt of court though he emphasised that all stay orders in the country should be vacated.

Awan criticised the PML-N for recognising the Unification Bloc of the PML-Q and said the Sharif brothers had once again started politics of turncoats in Punjab.

Calling them introducers of “Changa Manga politics” in the democratic scene of the country, he said the PML-N was violating the 18th and 19th amendment to the Constitution that barred floor crossing by the elected representatives.

Against past interpretations by all that floor-crossing clauses are to become operative in the next assemblies, the law minister believed that a constitutional amendment is implemented immediately after it is passed.

The federal minister claimed that the Punjab government had spent Rs190 billion on the CM Secretariat employees and VIP flights during the last three years. He said there were 932 officials and 115 officers working at the secretariat, costing the government Rs6.277 million daily.

He said the opposition would seek details about certain mega projects and Sasti Roti scheme from the ruling PML-N.

Later, Babar Awan visited the shrine of Hazrat Madhu Lal Hussain and laid floral wreath at the shrine.