- Minister says anti-state elements making attempts to derail election
RAWALPINDI: Caretaker Minister for Information and Broadcasting Syed Ali Zafar on Tuesday expressed the government’s resolve to hold the upcoming elections on time and in a free, fair and transparent manner.
Addressing Lahore High Court Bar Association here, he said that the federal and provincial governments would extend all kinds of assistance to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct free, fair and transparent polls on time.
He said that anti-state elements were making attempts to derail the election. “We will fail their designs through unity at national level.” He strongly condemned terrorist attacks on the rallies of political parties in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and expressed sympathies with the affected families.
He said that the anti-state elements wanted to harm unity of the nation. He said that it was collective responsibility of all, including the political parties, to counter any narrative against the institutions. Ali Zafar said that he had interacted with the ECP many times and was quite satisfied with the steps being taken by it for conducting the elections in a transparent manner.
He said that according to the Elections Act-2017, the ECP had been empowered. “The Election Commission of Pakistan is one of the most powerful commissions in the world.” He assured assistance of the government to the Election Commission for implementing the code of conduct issued for the political parties.