Daily Times

LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid has demanded of the caretaker government to suspend all local bodies in order to hold free, fair and transparent general elections in the country.

PMLQ’s senior central leader and former deputy prime minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi has said that free, fair and transparent elections cannot be held without suspending local bodies.

Talking to PMLQ leaders, workers and prominent figures of Gujrat and Talagang at his residence on Monday, he said that PMLN has started pre-poll rigging in Punjab through local bodies.

He stated that PMLN’s local body members and chairmen are undertaking the work of PMLN candidates locally and are also organising their public meetings. Their local body members and chairmen are threatening the polling staff and are influencing them.

Parvez Elahi said that for holding fair and transparent elections in Punjab, it is essential that local bodies should be completely suspended until July 25, adding that only suspending development funds of local bodies is not enough.

The PMLQ leader said that the caretaker governments are claiming to hold fair and transparent elections but if the local bodies are not suspended until July 25, then this claim of the caretaker government will not be based on reality. As such, the caretaker governments and Election Commission of Pakistan should take immediate notice of this situation so that their claim about transparency of election is based on reality.

Published in Daily Times, June 26^th 2018.