Pakistan People’s Party Secretary Information Qamar Zaman Kaira said on Friday the decision of the Lahore High Court to hold Punjab local bodies elections on party-basis had vindicated the stand of his party.
He recalled that the PPP had challenged the Punjab Local Government Law 2013 in the high court on the ground that its application would deny the exercise of political, financial and executive powers at the local levels by elected representatives with political identity.
PPP Secretary General Latif Khosa had filed the petition and pleaded the case against the Local Government Law 2013 of the Punjab government.
He said Benazir Bhutto had also challenged in 1988 the elections on non-party basis introduced by dictator Zia-ul-Haq meant to perpetuate his rule but the Supreme Court rejected it by adjudicating that the political parties were the essence of the democratic process which was the spirit of constitution.
He said the reintroduction of the non-party basis election by the present PML(N) government and its leaders tantamount to proving them as the ideologues of the usurper.
He said the insistence by the Punjab government to hold elections on non-party basis clearly reflected their well-founded apprehensions of erosion of their political support base during the last months due to the unprecedented price-hike and worsening law and order situation in the country.
He expressed his surprise over the PML(N) leadership’s oblivion of the Charter of Democracy signed in May 2006 that unequivocally stipulated that elections at all tiers would be held on party-basis.
He observed that their preference for the non-party elections was fueled by the PML(N) leaders disposition of concentration of power without realising that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Mentioning four ministries retained by the prime minister, Kaira said nothing moved in the Punjab government without the nod of Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz Sharif which spoke volumes of their questionable commitment to democratic ethos and the dividends of collective wisdom including participatory democracy. He regretted that the ruling party leaders were in favour of non-party elections because they wanted to make local bodies institutions as subservient to bureaucracy through the Provincial Local Commission assigned with powers to sack chairmen of local authorities.
