Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Taj Haider on Wednesday said that unfortunately, instead of studying the two page PPP proposals and focusing on its recommendations, the Government was indulging in wild accusations against the PPP, which had no relevance to the fair conduct of Post Enumeration Survey (PES).

Its ministers were using the most derogatory language against PPP in their ‘sincere’ efforts to achieve a so called ‘consensus’. Not once has any objection been raised on the points included in the PPP proposal. “We are not sure if the PPP’s proposals have even been read by the Government”, he said in a statement issued today.

He said that the related questions for a fair conduct of PES are; who should be the third party to conduct the PES? What should be the method and what tools should be used for conducting the PES and whether readjustment of the total counts would be made if the figures obtained in the survey widely differ from those obtained in Census 2017.

Senator Taj Haider said that institutions are being dragged into an artificial conflict and are being portrayed in an imaginary anti-democratic role. Confusion, paranoia and unfounded fears are being widely spread. Despair and despondency have replaced the general trust and hope of the people in the democratic order. No move towards finding a logical correction of the earlier mistakes through internationally accepted and known scientific methods is being made. All this because the mindset of hatred towards the PPP remains dominant in the thinking of the government. A mindset based on prejudice and hatred can only lead to the forfeiture of the mental capacity for objective analysis and decision making.

He further said that there are more than 185 countries, big and small, rich and poor where population census is conducted in an easy and transparent scientific manner. Why should we be allergic to knowledge and wise counsel? Why should we refuse to learn from successes of others?

Why instead of objectively correcting our mistakes we should continue to seek solace in conspiracy theories?

Why can’t they realize that notwithstanding its glorious background of democratic struggle PPP cannot think of postponing even for a single day an election that it is clearly poised to win in every province?

Published in Daily Times, December 14^th 2017.