From Zeeshan Mirza
KARACHI: As the battle lines were drawn between the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPP-P) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for the February 8 general elections, the former ac-cused the latter of using illegal means to return to power for the fourth time.
In an interview with foreign media, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who is also PPP-P’s candidate for the prime minister slot, alleged that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif want-ed to pressurise “administration” to influence the election results.
The PPP chairman has been repeatedly accusing Nawaz of attempting to return to power for the fourth time via a backdoor. Last month, the former foreign minister had said that Nawaz was “relying on something other than people” to become PM.
Ending his four-year self-imposed exile in London, Nawaz — three-time former prime minister — re-turned to Pakistan in October last year to take a fourth shot at power. During the interview, the PPP chairman said that the caretaker government and the administration were also “biased” in favour of Nawaz. Responding to a question, Bilawal said: “PPP’s alliance with PML-N is difficult.”
“This PML-N is no longer the party who had signed the charter of democracy. It is not the party whose slogan was ‘respect the vote’ but a PML-N [with a mentality] of Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI). [Nawaz] dreams of becoming Amirul Momineen.” It is pertinent to mention here that the Charter of Democracy (CoD) was inked by former prime minis-ters Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz in 2006 in London. One of the key points of the CoD was a joint struggle against the “dictatorship”.
The PPP stalwart, however, hoped that the caretaker government, despite PML-N’s pressure, would not interfere in the upcoming polls. He also expressed hope that the PPPP would form the next gov-ernment after winning elections.
He further said that the upcoming elections should be free, fair, and transparent, adding that a level playing field should be given to all the political parties in the run-up to elections to restore the credibil-ity of elections in the country.
