Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid has said that boycott of presidential elections by the Pakistan People’ s Party (PPP) is a violation of democratic principles.
Talking to local media on Friday, the minister said: “Before taking this step, Rabbani should have thought whether he was serving democracy or damaging democratic values?”
Commenting on the press conference held by Raza Rabbani, the information minister said the PPP stalwart had thanked all the opposition parties for their support and made all out efforts to bring a consensus candidate in the presidential elections which showed that he (Rabbani) had completed his election campaign.
However, seeing little chances of success, Rabbani resorted to boycott as a way to avoid the elections, the minister said.
Over Rabbani’s alleged helplessness of going to provinces for his election campaign, Rashid said: “Five years ago, President Zardari had conducted his whole presidential campaign while staying in Islamabad, therefore, Rabbani should have at least learnt from the experience of President Zardari.”
Earlier, Pervaiz Rashid said, the PPP faced worst defeat in the elections due to its bad governance and this time round it would suffer further loss owing to its bad decisions as opposition.
The senator said Rabbani himself had brought constitutional amendments due to which institutions were strengthened but now he (Rabbani) would be held accountable for taking an altogether different stand.
Senator Pervaiz said the PPP man talked about an independent election commission but his attitude towards the independence of judiciary was not apposite.
The very election commission that Rabbani was concerned about also held the general elections, he said, adding now creating doubts about the commission regarding presidential election did not behove him.
About the schedule of presidential elections, the minister said that the PML-N held detailed consultations with all other political parties.
The government did not decide itself about the election schedule, instead it sought guidance from the apex court which would be implemented in its letter and spirit, he explained.
He said it was unintelligible for him as to how the holding elections few days earlier would have affected the performance of Raza Rabbani.
The PML-N performed the role of opposition during the last tenure of PPP but never resorted to criticism for the sake of criticism, the senator averred.
Rashid expressed the hope that the PPP would play the role of positive opposition for promoting democratic values.
“Whatever the conditions and circumstances are, we should respect the judiciary,” he added.
