ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira claimed on Tuesday that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) doesn’t want the democratic process to operate smoothly as it does not go in favour of the PML-N right now.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Kaira said that PML-N has been trying to push the institutions to their limits. He also said that the ruling party has tried its best to destabilise the democratic process, though the institutions have exhibited patience in the face of PML-N’s political tactics.
“Nawaz Sharif’s interests are not aligned with democracy,” he added.
He further claimed that PML-N President Nawaz Sharif would be unable to contest elections even if he manages to emerge safely from the ongoing corruption references against him.
Discussing the possibility of early elections in Pakistan, Kaira remarked that his party believed in democracy and doesn’t support the notion of early elections.
“Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) demand for early elections are not unconstitutional but they are not the need of time and neither do other political parties support it,” the PPP leader said.
PTI leaders have time and again reiterated their demand for early elections.
Earlier on Sunday, the party’s spokesman Fawad Chaudhry said that the party does not want a delay, but instead demands early elections in the country.
In a video message, he suggested that all the assemblies, provincial and national, should be dissolved after consultation with the stakeholders.
Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, however, has rejected calls for early elections on Monday and said that the assemblies will be dissolved on June 5, 2018, after completing their constitutional tenure. Iqbal, accompanied by other PML-N leaders, had said that Pakistan is a democracy and the only National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) existing in the country is the one in the hands of the people.
