- Asking all to keep an eye on process, PPP co-chief says PPP SG wrote to CEC for fair and transparent polls
In a statement issued Monday, former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari has called upon the provincial and local party leadership in Dir to bring out women in large numbers to cast votes in the by-election in PK-93 Upper Dir on Tuesday.
Zardari said that PPP believes in empowering women and has been rejecting deals for keeping women out of the electoral politics and voting.
“Regardless of the outcome of the election results in PK 93, tomorrow our sisters and daughters must not be deprived of their fundamental right to vote in the election and express their political opinion without fear,” the PPP co-chief said.
“Let the by-election in Dir send a clear and loud message to all that the party rejects obscurantism and treating women as serfs or second class citizens. Whether some one likes it or not and regardless of who wins, let us send this message in an unambiguous and clear manner,” he said.
Zardari also warned against manipulation of results on the election day and asked the party workers, independent observers and members of the civil society to keep an eye on the voting process.
He said that PPP Secretary General Raja Pervez Ashraf had already addressed a letter to the chief election commissioner (CEC) on the subject and expressed hope that the elections will not only be held fairly and transparently but will also appear to have been thus held.
According to PPP spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar, the electoral contest today has turned out to be a “straight fight” between the ruling coalition alliance in the province, represented by the Jamat-e-Islami (JI) candidate, and the PPPP supported by the opposition parties including the Awami National Party (ANP), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). The winner of 2013 election belonging to JI from this constituency PK 93 was de-seated after the PPP pursued the case of his fake degree.
Expressing apprehension that it was “natural” for the ruling coalition in the province to “desperately seek to win the seat- because of the urge to avenge the embarrassment of the de-seating of its sitting MPA”, Ashraf had asked CEC for measures to prevent any manipulation in the election process and results.
Lastly, former president Zardari felicitated provincial president Senator Khanzada Khan, former MPAs from Dir Zamin Khan and Anwar Khan, Bacha Saleh and divisional and district party office bearers and all workers for their efforts in mobilising the people in Upper Dir to vote for the PPP candidate.
