Senate elections: Open balloting to help discourage corrupt elements: Faraz

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz, Monday, said that open balloting in the Senate elections will help discourage corrupt elements, and urged the opposition parties, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), to fulfil their commitment made in the Charter of Democracy (CoD).

The minister was speaking at a news conference, in which, he also came down hard on the PPP’s Sindh government for arresting opposition leader in the provincial assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh of the PTI, allegedly on political grounds to victimise him.

About the forthcoming Senate elections, he said that Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government wanted to stop the corrupt practices in the Senate elections.

He pointed out that the leadership of the major opposition political parties including the PML-N and the PPP had committed in the CoD to end the use of money in the Senate polls, and urged both the parties to honour their commitment.

“Despite having no majority, the PPP is claiming that its candidate will win, which in a sense a confession of indulging in horse-trading,” he stated, adding that the prime minister had a principled stance that neither the economy, nor democracy could improve unless the role of money in politics was brought to an end.

Shibli also claimed that the arrest of Haleem Adil by the Sindh government was an effort to influence the Senate polls, and also demanded his immediate release.

“The incompetent and corrupt Sindh government has politicised the institution by induction of its own people in the provincial departments,” he alleged.

He further claimed that Adil was being punished for exposing the PPP’s provincial government’s corruption.

“If an elected member and leader of the opposition is not safe in Sindh, just imagine how would be the situation with the common man?” he asked.

Further accusing the major opposition parties for running the network of criminals, he claimed that the parties were using these networks for the purposes of business and political interests.

Referring to the recent Tharparkar by-election in which the PTI got defeated by the PPP’s candidate, the minister claimed that his party’s workers were harassed and intimidated by misusing the government institutions.

He further alleged that the Sindh government was protecting the interests of only one class while the poor, particularly in the rural areas are facing serious hardships.

To a question, he rejected the impression that the PTI has lost credibility among the masses given the results of the recent by-polls, claiming the PTI performance has improved in the by-elections, as in Wazirabad the party lost with a narrow margin to the PML-N and in Daska, the PTI candidate was wining.

In the same time, he claimed that the PTI candidate had won in Daska, adding that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would start its proceeding on the case from Tuesday.

He said that the PTI would accept the decision of the ECP.

He also accused the PML-N of violence and terror on the election day that resulted in loss of two innocent lives.

He recalled that the PML-N leader, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, had recently stated that the elections would now be held at gun point.

“They just proved that by firing on the PTI workers in Daska,” he alleged.

To another question, Shibli Faraz said that the government is working to introduce electronic voting system to make the next general elections free, fair, and transparent.

Responding to another query, the minister said that timely measures to control the prices of essential commodities are yielding positive results, as prices of various goods are declining.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021