Pakistan oppn to boycott poll if demands not met
Pakistan’s main opposition parties on Tuesday began framing a charter of demands to ensure free and fair parliamentary polls, a day after former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto joined forces and warned the elections would be boycot...
By Agencies |
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s main opposition parties on Tuesday began framing a charter of demands to ensure free and fair parliamentary polls, a day after former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto joined forces and warned the elections would be boycotted if their demands are not met.
Members of the committee, which is tasked with framing the charter and comprises four leaders each of Bhutto’s PPP and All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) — an opposition alliance led by Sharif’s PML-N, admitted they had little time to draw up the demands and said they would have it ready in the next two to three days.
During their first meeting since returning to Pakistan from exile, Bhutto and Sharif last night agreed to come together to force the government to accept certain conditions to ensure free and fair polls. They warned that they would boycott the polls if their demands are not met. Senior PPP leader and senator Raza Rabbani, a member of the committee said the “core issue” before the panel is “ensuring free and fair elections”. He said the committee would have to work within a “very tight time schedule” to reach “common ground” on the charter of demands. The committee will also decide on the deadline for the government to fulfill the demands.
While all the parties were tight-lipped on the issues to be included in the charter, Ahsan Iqbal, the spokesman for PML-N party, said: “We don’t have much time and we will try to draft the charter as soon as possible and present it to our leaders”.
“Many concerns have been expressed by both sides, such as the role of the election commission and the role of government agencies involved in electioneering. The idea is to draft a common set of demands acceptable to the APDM and PPP to ensure free and fair elections,” Mr Iqbal said.
Political observers said the charter would focus on key issues like the immediate withdrawal of the emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf on November 3, restoration of the pre-emergency judiciary, lifting of curbs on the media and release of all political prisoners.
Sharif, whose nominations papers for the polls were rejected on Monday, has also been insisting on the reinstatement of deposed Supreme Court judges. Bhutto has stopped short of this, saying that her party wants an independent judiciary.
The PPP and PML-N are also forging ahead with steps to prepare their supporters to contest the polls. The PML-N parliamentary board met here on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Sharif’s brother Shahbaz to decide on allocating tickets to candidates. Sharif himself visited areas in PoK affected by the 2005 earthquake to express solidarity with the victims and drum up support for the PML-N.
Members of the committee, which is tasked with framing the charter and comprises four leaders each of Bhutto’s PPP and All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) — an opposition alliance led by Sharif’s PML-N, admitted they had little time to draw up the demands and said they would have it ready in the next two to three days.
During their first meeting since returning to Pakistan from exile, Bhutto and Sharif last night agreed to come together to force the government to accept certain conditions to ensure free and fair polls. They warned that they would boycott the polls if their demands are not met. Senior PPP leader and senator Raza Rabbani, a member of the committee said the “core issue” before the panel is “ensuring free and fair elections”. He said the committee would have to work within a “very tight time schedule” to reach “common ground” on the charter of demands. The committee will also decide on the deadline for the government to fulfill the demands.
While all the parties were tight-lipped on the issues to be included in the charter, Ahsan Iqbal, the spokesman for PML-N party, said: “We don’t have much time and we will try to draft the charter as soon as possible and present it to our leaders”.
“Many concerns have been expressed by both sides, such as the role of the election commission and the role of government agencies involved in electioneering. The idea is to draft a common set of demands acceptable to the APDM and PPP to ensure free and fair elections,” Mr Iqbal said.
Political observers said the charter would focus on key issues like the immediate withdrawal of the emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf on November 3, restoration of the pre-emergency judiciary, lifting of curbs on the media and release of all political prisoners.
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They also pointed out that the charter of demands represented a compromise between Sharif, who had been pushing for a boycott of the polls along with other members of the APDM, and Bhutto, who has been insisting that her party would contest the january 8 elections to the national and four provincial assemblies.Sharif, whose nominations papers for the polls were rejected on Monday, has also been insisting on the reinstatement of deposed Supreme Court judges. Bhutto has stopped short of this, saying that her party wants an independent judiciary.
The PPP and PML-N are also forging ahead with steps to prepare their supporters to contest the polls. The PML-N parliamentary board met here on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Sharif’s brother Shahbaz to decide on allocating tickets to candidates. Sharif himself visited areas in PoK affected by the 2005 earthquake to express solidarity with the victims and drum up support for the PML-N.
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