Daily Times

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari Monday said that if PML-N has solid proofs of rigging in NA-249 by-polls, it should approach the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), a private TV channel reported.

“Since PML-N has lost the seat, they want the army to interfere in the matter. It should be recalled that in 2018, the army was deployed at all the polling stations of the country,” Bilawal said at a press conference in Karachi. “PML-N’s demand to hand over the ballot boxes to the army for recounting is unreasonable,” he said. adding that the PPP does not support such demands. “Don’t appeal to the army, we don’t want that the PML-N has lost one seat so it is now appealing for the army to interfere in the electoral process. We think this is not only disadvantageous for the electoral process when the army has a role […] we think not only are elections made controversial due to this but unnecessarily the Pakistan Army is also made controversial due to this,” he said, adding that if it had the polling process in its control then if anyone had any complaint, they would start lobbing criticism on an institution which should be ‘uncontroversial and apolitical’.

He said the most important and fundamental aspect for stopping electoral rigging was to stamp out the role of the establishment in elections, adding that elections will continue to be controversial no matter how much legislation is done if the establishment has an active role in the electoral process.

Bilawal said that if the establishment can be kept at bay from the elections and if they can adopt an ‘impartial and apolitical attitude’, then there would be benefit to electoral reforms and reduction to rigging in elections. “No active participatory role of establishment has been observed in the NA-249 by-election in Karachi and therefore we would want, not only that we do legislation but also build on the consensus that the there is no interference of the establishment in electoral politics,” he said.

Bilawal said the PPP has consistently worked on electoral reforms and “we think there is great need that we don’t want a repetition of the rigging done in 2018 and before,” adding that the PPP is ready to do any reform which needs to be done. “The ECP can play a big and important role in this to engage political parties and gain their input. As far as the government is concerned, no one takes its stance seriously,” said Bilawal.

During the presser, Bilawal also lashed out at the PML-N and accused it of ‘making excuses’ and ‘backing out’ from pursuing a no-confidence motion against the government in Punjab and the Centre despite agreeing in the founding document of the Pakistan Democratic Movement to use democratic and parliamentary weapons against Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Prime Minister Imran Khan. He reiterated that the PPP thought the opposition should oppose the government and its policies instead of engaging in opposition with each other. Bilawal questioned why the PML-N did not challenge CM Buzdar despite having the majority votes in Punjab. “This is criminal political negligence that for three years, despite having such a big vote [bank], the PML-N didn’t once try to make the government difficult for (CM) Buzdar,” he said, adding that the PPP felt that maybe they had a covert deal with the government. “While Imran Khan is speaking about dissolving the assembly, PML-N is talking about resigning from the assembly. Therefore, both seem to be on the same page,” he said.

Bilawal also addressed other topics and said the PPP was criticised too much on the issue of local bodies when Sindh was the only province to complete a term of its local bodies. “The coming local body elections will show, we are working on our law and local governments because we want them to have more power and resources so their own revenue generation is bolstered.”