PPP refutes PTI’s assertion of withdrawing candidate

Karachi
Pakistan People’s Party Senator Saeed Ghani rubbished the assertion of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) that the PPP withdrew its own candidate in favour of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) for the upcoming by-election on NA-246.
Ghani, who is also the incharge of PPP’s provincial media cell, said late on Saturday evening that the PTI leaders were incorrect to make such an assumption.
Earlier in the evening, the PTI leaders’ press conference at the residence of MNA Dr Arif Alvi had alluded that they could not ask the PPP to support them in the by-poll since the former had withdrawn its candidate in favour of the MQM.
However, Ghani said refuted this notion and said there were three main reasons which had kept the party from fielding a candidate for the upcoming by-election.
First, he said, traditionally the NA-246 was not PPP’s favourite constituency and if the party even decided to contest the by-poll it would draw allegations against itself for biased conduct of the local administration, since the party also led the province.
The final reason, he said, the PPP wanted to conserve the energy of its prospective electoral candidates for the upcoming local government election in Sindh. Fielding a candidate for the by-election on a National Assembly of the city would simply mean that contesting party had to unduly exhaust its resources.