PDM leaders flay ECP’s discriminatory attitude towards them

Leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) have flayed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for treating them unfairly while dealing with issues relating the coming Senate elections, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Talking to the media men outside the ECP’s office in Islamabad on Wednesday, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said he and PPP’s Raja Pervez Ashraf received a letter from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) a day before yesterday in which they had been told that since they were proposers and seconders of Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) candidate for the Senate election from Islamabad, they should reach the ECP office at 11 am, otherwise their candidate’s nomination papers would be summarily rejected.

Khaqan Abbasi said today when they reached ECP’s office, we were met with the government’s legal team, which said they had objections to the Gilani’s candidature, and their counsel was coming from Lahore so they be granted additional time, which the returning officer granted. “It was the government’s job to arrange papers as well as the counsel,” he said.

He said he and Raja Pervez Ashraf were the seconders of Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani’s candidature. “Had we not reached the ECP’s office at 11 am on Wednesday, the nomination papers would have been rejected,” he said pessimistically. “Pakistanis are witness to the fact what was happening in the country,” he added.

Khaqan Abbasi said they have evidence for disqualification of Hafeez Shaikh but they did not file an objection to his candidature.

He also said the ECP had accepted the government’s request to extend the date for filing nomination papers but our request for an extension in the election schedule has been rejected.

Speaking on the occasion, PPP leader and also former prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani appealed to the speaker National Assembly to issue production orders for the MPs who were currently in detention. “This is for the first time in the country’s history that so much noise has been created on Senate elections in the country,” he regretted.

He said PDM was opposed to horse-trading and was for transparency in the Senate elections. “We are the victims of horse-trading,” he claimed.

He said the sanctity of the parliament should be paramount. “Let parliament do its job. Let the parliament bring amendment in the constitution, and not any other organ of the state,” he asserted.

He said if his proposer and seconder did not turn up at the commission’s office at 11 am, his papers would have been summarily rejected.

Raja Pervez Ashraf said ever since Yousaf Raza Gilani had been nominated by the PDM as a candidate for the Senate elections, the government was in jittery.

He hoped that honourable members of the National Assembly would vote on merit. He said God willing, Gilani would win elections.

Abbasi said there was consensus in the PDM that only parliament was authorised to amend the constitution. “There should be no other way to amend the constitution. No ordinance please,” he asserted.

He further said those who were seen in the video were all PTI members. He said if the government wanted to amend the constitution for introducing voting through open ballot, then it should table the bill in the parliament.

Gilani expressed the hope that MPs would vote according to their conscience. “Parliament is not meant for calling each other names, but for legislation,” he emphasized.