PPP wanted to boycott polls

LAHORE
Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, President PPP Punjab chapter, said that party was in favour of boycotting the by-elections due to the blatant violation of the code of conduct of the Election Commission of Pakistan by the PML-N and the PTI but high command insisted on contesting the elections no matter what would be the results.
In a statement issued on Monday, he strongly criticised the ECP's indifference to the party complaint regarding billions of rupees being spent by the PTI and PML-N candidates on the election campaign and the people saw this with their own eyes the mind blowing expenses being incurred by the both parties. He added that after the decision of the party top leadership the party launched campaign only four days before the by-elections and the results could not be measured to our expectations. On elections in Okara, he pointed out that the farmers
had given loud and clear message to the PML-N government that their anti-farmers policies were not acceptable implying that the same treatment would be meted out to the PML-N candidates during the forthcoming local government elections.
About humiliating defeat of Ashraf Sohna he said that he did not want to comment on his fate which obviously was not different from such characters who left PPP for the sake of their ulterior motives. On the poor performance of PPP in by-elections in Okara, he said that the local chapter of the party was divided and the vote bank also divided as a consequence. He maintained that the present rulers came to power on the behest of the non-democratic forces and had been running the government since then on the pattern that was neither democratic nor poor friendly.