The Senate on Tuesday expressed concern that the Taliban might attack political parties and keeping in view the threats, the government should provide foolproof security to candidates and ensure safety of voters as well.
PPP Senator Mian Raza Rabbani said if somebody wanted to postpone election by hurling threats, he was living in a fools’ paradise.
He said the security of former ministers had been drawn back, but it was being provided to Pervez Musharraf.
The government should end such double standards.
He said three big political parties having liberal thoughts, including the PPP, ANP and MQM, were facing challenges from terrorists.
“Candidates form these parties are under fire from terrorists and ECP scrutiny.”
Rabbani said the country could not afford a delay in election even for an hour. “The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan is issuing statements openly but no political party condemns the group.”
Caretaker Interior Minister Haji Habib said the he would raise the issue in the cabinet meeting and all candidates would be provided appropriate security and holding of timely election would be ensured.
ANP’s Senator Haji Adeel said the country was passing through a difficult time and people were horrified due to terrorism incidents on a daily basis. He said coming elections would be the first ever in the history of the country in which no political party could hold large public meeting.
He said the turnout of women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remained low, whereas in the prevailing circumstances, they can not cast their votes.
Adeel said the condition was getting worse in all provinces except Punjab.
MQM’s Nasreen Jalil said the role of the Rangers in Karachi was not appreciable and the personnel barged into houses during search operations. “The workers of MQM are being targeted for the last two years.”
Senator Zahid Khan said the ANP was not in favour of pushing any political party to the wall. Over 750 workers and leaders have been killed in sabotage activities, he added.
JUP’s Haji Ghulam Ali said the people of KP were facing many problems in getting their national identity cards made and the issue should be resolved on priority basis before elections.
