PPP mulling proposal to vote for PTI’s Wajihuddin

With the Pakistan Peoples’ Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) leadership already announced to observe boycott of the July 30 presidential election, several options are under consideration, including an option to vote for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Justice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmed – a proposal being opposed by the Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Today has learnt.
A PPPP source said the second-tier leadership of the party was divided over the proposal floated by a top leader who is pleading that a complete boycott of the election for next president may leave the party totally isolated and that such a move would be against the principles of the party’s slain leader Benazir Bhutto.
“It was political philosophy of Benazir Bhutto that boycott of the polls always lands you in political isolation and it always favours your opponent. The boycott of poll was also against the advice of the PPP co-chairman President Asif Zardari,” the source said.
The PPPP leader added that boycott of the election was the sole idea of the PPPP candidate for presidential slot Raza Rabbani and was backed by Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan. The decision aimed at increasing pressure on the judiciary.
“However, better sense is prevailing and the party’s leaders are getting out of emotionalism. So different options are being considered including exercise of vote for Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed. Moreover, another option is to hold a protest demonstration within the parliament house against the election process of the president by raising slogans and thus creating a scene in the parliament house,” the source added.
He said that the proposal had been shared with ANP President Asfandyar Wali Khan by opposition leader Khurshid Shah, but the former rejected it.
ANP Senior Vice President Senator Haji Adeel said that his party would strongly oppose any such proposal. “Had we decided to vote, we would have voted for our own candidate. Since, we have boycotted the election, we will not favour any such proposal to take part in election,” he added.
Asked whether the PPPP leadership had shared any such proposal with the ANP, Adeel said no such development was in his knowledge, adding that any such decision would be “ill-advised”.
“We will oppose any proposal to vote for PTI candidate,” he said, adding that once Imran Khan had also supported views expressed by the opposition parties, his decision to take part in the election for presidential slot was “shameful”.
PPPP leader Khurshid Shah said his party wanted Imran Khan to boycott the presidential election.
“We had made a similar request to Imran Khan in our meeting. When Imran Khan himself recongised that the stance of the PPP was legitimised, then he should also boycott the election. PTI must come out of the electoral process if they think that the presidential poll is being rigged,” he added.
Asked whether the PPPP was mulling a proposal to vote for the PTI candidate, Shah said his party had announced to boycott and voting for any candidate would compromise its earlier decision. He said that the National Assembly session was going to be held today (Monday), the party would fine-tune its strategy in consultation with its allies to deal with the boycott of the election. Continuing his rant against the rescheduling of the presidential election by the Supreme Court, Shah said that in the country’s history, no election had been held earlier than the actual schedule.
“Yes, there are occasions when the election date was extended but it never happened that opposition parties were denied their right to reach out to their voters,” he said. Asked whether by boycotting the election the PPPP had been trapped by the government as the MQM has also announced its support for the government’s candidate, he said the PPPP had not been trapped.
Asked whether the PPPP had violated the philosophy of Benazir Bhutto by boycotting the election, Shah admitted that the boycott of 1985 election was a mistake for which the party was still suffering in one way or the other. However, he said that the party had decided in principle that it would never observe boycott of any general election. “Boycott of the presidential election does not fall under that decision,” he argued.