ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has welcomed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s offer of constituting a committee for holding talks and expressed readiness to hold talks on a single-point agenda to fix a date for the next general elections.
Talking to a private TV channel, PTI secretary-general Asad Umar said that the prime minister should announce a committee to finalise dates for the next general polls.
He maintained that the country’s economy is going into a deep economic crisis with each passing day and the economic experts are issuing warnings that Pakistan could face a Sri-Lanka like situation within a few weeks. “It has now become evident that the incumbent government could no longer be dragged. Therefore, it should be brought to end as soon as possible,” he added.
He said that in case of talks with the government, his party’s position would only revolve around a single-point agenda – the announcement of the general elections in the country. However, he added that they could also discuss other agenda points of the government, but the main focus would be on a date for the general polls.
The PTI also strongly condemned the passage of The Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022 by the National Assembly on Thursday to what it claimed that through the legislation, the government deprived the overseas Pakistanis of their right to vote.
“PTI gave over nine million overseas Pakistanis the right to vote. Today, this band of thieves and thugs removed this, disenfranchising a staggering number of Pakistanis & barred use of electronic voting machines. Another regressive and condemnable act in Pakistan under fascism,” PTI vice chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi tweeted.
In another statement, Qureshi said that the reversal of the earlier passed election laws is tantamount to depriving overseas Pakistanis of their right to vote and an attempt to pay the way for the rigging by not allowing the use of EVMs in general polls.
“Through the amendment, the nefarious objectives of the ‘imported’ government have come to the fore…the PTI government had given voting rights to more than 9 million overseas Pakistanis. Today. this gang of thieves and thugs has taken away this right,” Qureshi added.
However, the government has rejected the impression, as Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar while speaking in National Assembly dismissed the perception that the amendment is aimed at depriving overseas Pakistanis of their right to vote. He added that overseas Pakistanis are precious asset of the country and the government does not believe in snatching their right to vote.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022