Sherry Rehman apprises ECP of PPP’s concerns

ISLAMABAD: Leader of Opposition in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman on Thursday alleged that some parties were being rewarded while others being targeted, including Pakistan People’s Party.

Talking to journalists after she and Senator Maula Bakhsh Chandio, having a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner Justice ® Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, said they apprised him of their concerns and how their candidates were being disqualified and pressured to change loyalties.

She complained that they had been talking to the Election Commission since last month, but it was not paying any attention to their concerns.

“It is not the decade of 1990s, we want things to be carried out under the Constitution and the Elections Act, 2017,” she maintained.

Senator Sherry, who is vice-president of PPPP, said it was the responsibility of the government to let anyone take part in elections or bar others from doing so, and wondered how banned organisations were cleared to contest the elections. "Proscribed organisations' candidates are being brought to the forefront, while our candidates are being disqualified," she asserted.

“They (the Election Commission) told us that to put any one’s name in the Fourth Schedule or to remove it or allow an organisation to take part in elections is purely the government’s job,” she said and demanded answers to these questions from the government.

She insisted that the caretakers had a great responsibility and they should move beyond just reading out from files and fulfill their responsibility.

Replying to a question, she said the issue of banned outfits taking part in elections and removal of names of certain persons from Fourth Schedule was raised in the Senate as well as with the Election Commission.

Regarding the Peshawar suicide attack, she said that those powers, which had taken 22 lives, would have to be pushed back and their diabolical designs failed. “The Election Commission has assured us complete cooperation and we will see in the days come, how level-playing is the field,” she said.

“What the ministers said in the House and then before the court, questions would be raised in the Senate thereon, as there is a clear difference in what they said at two forums with regards to ECL issue,” she emphasised.

She pointed out that there should not be an environment of pre-poll rigging while already the Election Commission had summoned the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority over controversial poll ads on private television channels. She added that the media should be given clear direction on fair and balanced coverage to political parties.

“How will this election be fair when fair time will not be given to parties. This is neither the era of Zia’s martial law nor it should be so,” she asserted.

Senator Sherry contended that PPP never indulged in indecent politics and therefore, there should not be any attempt to fan hatred, adding during election campaigns, the code of conduct be observed.

"Our party is being stopped from running its election campaign. Magisterial powers are being given to people other than the presiding officers,” she noted.

She and Senator Chandio charged that the Grand Democratic Alliance had been a free hand in Sindh and that it was linked to the ‘ladla’ (beloved).