Daily Times

Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly and PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman on Saturday agreed to hold an all-parties conference of the opposition on the issue of electoral reforms.

Shehbaz Sharif telephoned Bilawal Bhutto and Fazl-ur-Rehman to discuss APC of opposition parties for building consensus on electoral reforms. During the telephonic conversation with two leaders, Shehbaz Sharif said that all opposition parties and representatives of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would be invited to attend the APC for building consensus on the electoral reforms.

A day earlier, Shehbaz Sharif had urged the ECP to invite all opposition parties for consultation on electoral reforms. In a letter to the chief election commissioner (CEC), the opposition leader had called for a consensus-based reform plan to be presented before parliament for passage to ‘ensure that future elections are fair, transparent and reflect the genuine will of the electorate’.

“In view of the complaints of rigging in the 2018 Elections, there is a dire need for evolving a national consensus on electoral reforms to ensure that next general elections are held in fair, free and transparent manner, without any interference,” Shehbaz Sharif had stated in the letter. “The present government’s unilateral actions to force its electoral reforms agenda without any consultation with the stakeholders, which conflicts with many constitutional provisions, will make future elections controversial,” he had said. “For meaningful electoral reforms, institutions have to ensure stakeholders’ input and ownership. The spirit of upholding the constitution must be at the center of the reform plan,” he had maintained.

Separately, Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said that the government has turned the difference of opinion into personal enmity. “Unfortunately, the incumbent government has turned democratic protest, the difference of opinion and criticism into a personal enmity,” he said in a statement.

The PML-N leader also strongly condemned baton-charge on the opposition members of the Balochistan Assembly. He went on to add that the tactics of chaos and suppression are non-democratic, non-parliamentary and non-political.