News Analysis |
The President of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shahbaz Sharif has alleged that the present assemblies are the most ‘controversial’ ones in the history of Pakistan. He addressing to the National Assembly after losing the elections for premiership at the hands of PTI’s chief Imran Khan. Shahbaz Sharif also said “This assembly was made after massive rigging. What sort of an election was this in which from Chitral to Karachi, machines were shut down and polling agents were expelled.”
The PML-N leader said that the Election Commission of Pakistan completely failed to fulfill its due responsibilities. Shahbaz demanded the National Assembly speaker to form a parliamentary committee over the election rigging allegations. “parliamentary committee should present its report to the public and House within 30 days,” he said. “We won’t attack parliament.
This assembly was made after massive rigging. What sort of an election was this in which from Chitral to Karachi, machines were shut down and polling agents were expelled.
We won’t disturb the visit of foreign dignitaries to Pakistan. We won’t curse the parliament. We won’t force the Supreme Court judges to change their route,” he said. “But we won’t settle before getting answers of our questions,” Shahbaz said that the people behind massive electoral rigging must be unveiled and if the party is not given required answers it will launch a protest movement.
Opposition parties stage protest in Islamabad
The political parties which could not perform well in the General Elections 2018 staged a protest in front of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday 9th August. These parties alleged that the general elections were neither fair nor transparent. The ECP has failed to perform its duties, leaders of vanquished political parties alleged.
Read more: PML-N submits a resolution in Punjab Assembly to seek inquiry into…
The decision to hold the protest was made by the newly formed 11-party grand opposition alliance, named ‘Pakistan Alliance for Free and Fair Elections’, at a multi-party conference held in Islamabad on last Friday.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the opposition alliance comprises Awami National Party (ANP), Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), National Party (NP) and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) participated in the protest.
PML-N submits a resolution in Punjab Assembly to seek inquiry into RTs Failure
The PML-N has recently submitted a resolution in the Punjab assembly to seek an inquiry into the failure of the Election Commission of Pakistan’s Results Transmission System (RTS) on election night. “The sudden failure of the RTS system is synonymous with rigging,” the resolution stated, reiterating the party’s position on the issue.
It is now up to the PTI and its leadership that how it responds to cheeky politics of PML-N and emerge as successful political party after its five years of rule.
In the resolution, submitted by PLM-N parliamentarian Hina Pervaiz Butt, the PML-N has demanded that a parliamentary commission is created to investigate the failure of the RTS system and other allegations of rigging. The resolution asks that a report is presented with the findings of this investigation within a month.
Imran Khan ready to Investigate Rigging Allegations
Imran Khan addressed the national assembly after being elected as the PM and asked why they [PML-N] did not agree to investigate the electoral rigging allegations for four constituencies he had asked for in 2013. “Why did the government not take action then,” he said, referring to the verdict of a commission that indeed, there had been rigging. “We lost the elections on 43 Punjab assembly seats with less than 3,000 votes,” he said.
Read more: Shahbaz Sharif demands Parliamentary committee probe into election rigging
“The people who are accusing us of rigging the elections should tell us how I rigged the elections.” He went on to say, “InshAllah, my government will fix the electoral system. We will introduce a neutral umpire like I did in cricket in 1986.” He supported anyone who wanted an investigation into the election results and wanted to go to the Supreme Court.
PML-N; a Revengeful Opposition Ahead
During his speech, the president of the PML-N reminded the PTI without mentioning its name its politics of Dharna back in 2014. Now it is expected that the party has lost its traditional threshold, Punjab, this will annoy the PML-N and it will give ‘unnecessarily’ tough time to the government.
Read more: Why PMLN and PTI followers despise each other?
Analysts in Pakistan believe that the emerging trends in Pakistan’s political discourse suggest that the PML-N is going to play the politics of revenge to make it difficult for the PTI to implement its idea of change and Naya Pakistan. It is now up to the PTI and its leadership that how it responds to cheeky politics of PML-N and emerge as successful political party after its five years of rule.