Cracks within PML-N led to party losing Senate seats: Baloch

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Secretary General Liaqat Baloch said on Wednesday that the ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has been defeated in the Senate elections because visible cracks have appeared within its ranks.

He said this while addressing the participants of the JI central workshop at Mansoora. Addressing the participants, Baloch said that the senators of all those parties that were a part of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) had voted for the government candidate Raja Zafarul Haq.

The JI secretary general advised the ruling party to abandon the policy of confrontation with the state institutions as this approach would destroy the whole set up.

He said that the corruption of civilian dictators who ruled under the cover of democracy had created difficulties for the state. The ruling junta had plundered the public money to maintain a status quo in Pakistan, adding that now they were spreading propaganda against the state institutions in order to protect their ill-gotten wealth.

He urged the judiciary to show strong nerves and bring to justice all those whose names have been disclosed in the Panama, Dubai and London leaks, along with those who have been devouring billions of rupees in the shape of bank loans. He assured that the entire nation was behind the judiciary, adding that the spirit of accountability should not disturb the upcoming general elections in Pakistan.

Baloch further said that the accountability of an individual or a single family was not enough. He said the accountability process would be fruitful only if all the plunderers of national wealth were brought to justice, and every penny of public money was recovered from them.

He said that the electoral system had been corrupted as leaders of all parties were making allegations of horse-trading in the Senate elections. He also said the Senate elections had exposed the weaknesses of the electoral system, adding that if the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was to fail in its duty to hold fair, free and impartial elections during the ongoing year, the confidence of the masses in the electoral process would be badly shaken.

He said that ECP should take steps to make the forthcoming elections transparent and authentic at all costs.