Early elections only panacea for prevailing situation: PTI

• PTI central secretary information says his party demanded early elections because govt’s writ was eroding

• Shafqat Mehmood flays govt’s use of force against TLYR, says their demands should’ve been accepted earlier

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) reiterated its demand that early elections were the sole magic potion to steer the country out of the prevailing uncertain political situation, because virtually the government did not exist anywhere at all.

During his interaction with a selected group of journalists here on Thursday, PTI Central Secretary Information Shafqat Mehmood said that his party demanded early elections because the incumbent government’s writ was eroding.

He said that the party would strongly resist any move to delay the elections; hence PTI showed readiness to hold elections on the provisional census lists in order to ensure they are held on time.

Lashing out at the government, Shafqat said that the government has badly entangled the country in a vicious debt circle, and the foreign debt reached to the highest level during the time of the so-called government of experts.

The tax-to-GDP ratio was increasing alarmingly, and the poor were being burdened because of the ineptness and incompetence of the government, he added.

PTI central secretary information flayed the government on the use of force against Tehrik-e-Labbaik-e-Ya-Rasoolullah (TLYR), saying that the government should have accepted their demand earlier.

He said that the government tried to blame the rest of the political parties for the amendment. He categorically stated that the government did the amendment quite tactfully, making sure that no political parties, including Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and JUI-F, could know it.

“PTI strongly resisted the bill in the National Assembly; however, due to numerical strength, the government easily sailed the bill through the assembly,” he maintained.

Talking about party’s tickets, Shafqat said that the parliamentary boards were constituted in all the four provinces, which were looking into all the matter; however, so far, the party did not finalise the tickets.

He said the party’s tickets were mainly delayed due to the delimitation of constituencies, not because of any internal differences, as the delimitation would have impacted greatly on the constituencies because seats of some provinces would have been increased, and decreased in some other.

“PTI would speed up its public contact campaign, and PTI chairman would address various public gatherings in KP, Punjab and Sindh,” he added.

The PTI leader expressed optimism that the party would win the general elections because the people were fed up with the tested political parties, and PTI remained the only option in all provinces.

He said other political parties were reduced to a particular region; hence there would be a contest in coming elections in Punjab between PTI and Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N).

Similarly, he said that, in Sindh, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and PTI would come face to face, whereas, in Karachi, the real electoral battle was in the offing between PTI and Muttahida Qoumi Movement (MQM).

Moreover, Shafqat vowed that, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, small political parties—such as Awami National Party (ANP) and JUI-F—would face the challenge of PTI there.

He claimed that a number of seasoned politicians of various political parties, including PPP, PML-N and even JI were in contact with PTI.