Lahore:
PPP candidates remain uncertain about the precise mechanics of the arrangement of the regime of siege recently agreed with the PML-N, revealed the chapter of the Punjab of the Party.
On August 23, the President and former Prime Minister of the Punjab Central PPP, Raja Pervez Ashraf, the secretary general of the PPP and former president of the Senate, Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, as well as the leaders of the PML-N, the Federal Minister of the Railway Hanif Abbasi and the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Tariq Fazl Chaudhary, has jointly announced an adjustment formula, the start of their opening.
Under the formula, the “finalists” in a district would have the right to present candidates.
However, PPP, based on its own interpretation, also included seats where no official PML-N candidate was held between his candidate and the winner, whatever his own performance in these constituencies.
According to the central chapter of the PPP Punjab, the party watched Na-143 Sahiwal, NA-175 Muzaffargarh and Na-185 Dera Ghazi Khan. He explained that wherever a PPP candidate has obtained more votes than a candidate in good faith PML-N, party candidates should keep the right to present their candidate in the next elections, regardless of the poll.
It should be noted that in NA-185, DG Khan, the PML-N candidate worked as an independent and obtained second place, while the Dost Muhammad Khosa of the PPP arrived third. In Sahiwal, the seat was left open for the Istehkam-E-Pakistan (IPP) party, with its candidate, Nouman Ahmad Langrial, finishing third. The independent candidate supported by PML-N ranked second and the PPP landed in fifth place.
Several PPP leaders, while speaking to L’Express PK Press Club, admitted that they did not know if they would be attributed to seats other than Muzaffargarh, which was not even to be won at this moment.
A leader said real campaigns would only start once the party was assured of seats that deserve to be disputed. “Other than Dost Muhammad Khosa to DG Khan, no one else would plan to do a campaign without enthusiasm,” he said.
Addressing the Express PK Press Club, the secretary general of the PPP, Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, confirmed that the formula had been agreed “in principle”. Invited to clarify what it involved, he said: “The finalists will present their candidate.”
When he was pressed if it meant that the seats where the PPP came third or fourth would be excluded-despite the interpretation of the PUNJAB PPP according to which no PML-N candidate was held above the PPP candidate, he had the right to present-he explained that even in said seats where the candidate PML-N was not between the winning candidate and the right.
Asked about the rejection by PML-N of this interpretation, Bukhari said: “We are partners and we will discuss at the Punjab level meeting”. Regarding the time of this meeting, he added that he was not aware of any exact date, but said that the meeting will take place soon.
When he was asked why the party had withdrawn from the direct protest in Punjab, in particular because many in the party thought that the absence of PTI offered a golden opportunity to reconquer a lost land, he said that participation in coalition partners was unthinkable.
“How can we contest elections against our allies?” said the senior leader. “It was better to keep the coalition spirit alive and return to the finalist’s formula agreed in the opposition days.”
When it was reminded that the PPP and the PML-N had previously presented separate candidates to Sialkot PP-52, he replied that they must be learned from their mistakes. He also warned against the entirely Radiation of the PTI, adding that PTI cannot yet be considered out of the race, because it could enter the ring as independents.
