Sherpao terms holding polls without electoral reforms meaningless exercise

PESHAWAR: Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) Chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao on Saturday called for expediting electoral reforms to ensure the holding of a free and fair election, saying that holding the polls without bringing reforms would be a meaningless exercise.

Rejecting the PTI chairman Imran Khan’s demand for holding the polls, the QWP said the election would take place on its due time as the federal government would complete the remaining tenure.

Commenting on the PTI chairman’s ongoing long march, Sherpao said the Imran Khan’s agitation campaign would create anarchy in the country and exert pressure on the state institutions to hide his corruption. He vowed that the Pakistan Democratic Movement would foil such nefarious designs of the PTI leadership.

The QWP chairman was speaking at a meeting of party workers and office-bearers from Kangra and Battagram union councils. The meeting took place at Sherpao village in Charsadda.

Aftab Sherpao said that skyrocketing inflation had made life miserable for the people so the government should take steps to control ‘price-hike’ and provide relief to the poor people.

About the recent protest demonstrations in Swat, he said the people had awakened and wanted the restoration of durable peace. He said the PTI’s provincial government had failed to come up to the expectation of the people. He said the government should redress the grievances of the people. “Maintaining the law and order is the utmost responsibility of the provincial government, but it has largely failed to check rising lawlessness and militancy in KP,” he added.

Sherpao said the establishment had exposed the so-called cipher conspiracy of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan. “It is heartening that the establishment will not interfere in political affairs,” he added.

He said the former prime minister presented a wrong picture to the nation, particularly the youth after his ouster from power. He said the PTI allies had stopped supporting Imran Khan, who was removed from power through a constitutional way. The QWP leader said Imran Khan tarnished the country’s image at the international level by cooking up the regime change conspiracy.

He recalled that Imran Khan had pushed the country to bankruptcy and it would have faced a Sri Lanka-like situation if the incumbent coalition government had not taken steps to revive the economy.

He also demanded investigations into the killing of senior journalist Arshad Sharif and the cipher conspiracy to determine the facts.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022