Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Responding to the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) concerns in connection with the level-playing field for all political parties, caretaker Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Murtaza Solangi on Tuesday clarified that equal opportunities would be provided to all political parties and every party had full right to participate in the elections.
A day earlier, PPP senior leader Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah — without naming the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — said that the polls would have no credibility if one party was kept away from the electoral process in the country.
With the time of general elections drawing close, the PPP has persistently voiced concerns regarding the absence of equal opportunities to prove itself ahead of the polls. Last month, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had laid the blame for being denied a level-playing field on the PML-N.
On another occasion, without naming the PML-N, Bilawal had taken a subtle jibe at a political party, by saying that it is “really a weird thing that a certain party has given the date for the election”.
During a meeting with PPP Senator Salim Mandviwala today, the interim information minister said the caretaker government would provide all possible support and facilities to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in conducting free and fair elections.
Matters of mutual interest, the current political and economic situation of the country including the upcoming elections were discussed in the meeting.
The minister said the ECP was responsible for conducting elections in the country. He assured the PPP leader: “Equal opportunities will be provided to all political parties and every party has full right to participate in the elections.”
Economic stability in the country was very important and Pakistan’s economic agenda should not be affected in any way, Solangi added. The senator expressed the hope that the poll organising authority would conduct general elections in the last week of January next year as promised.
