PPP declares 2011 as local body elections year: move aimed at thwarting opposition's alliance

In a bid to counter the likely formation of grand opposition alliance against the government, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) on Monday declared 2011 as a year of local bodies' elections, urging the political parties and provinces to make preparations for the elections.
Speaking at a news conference, Secretary Information PPP Qamar Zaman Kaira said that any opposition alliance if formed with the aim to destabilise the democratic set up would be countered, adding those talking about such alliances have been rejected by the masses in the recent elections of Azad Jammu and Kashmir; and Gilgit-Baltistan and bye elections in the country.
He alleged that PML-N chief, Nawaz Sharif, had resorted to anti-PPP agenda in the recent AJK polls instead of focusing on politics of issues, which the people rejected. "Grand alliance is the coalition of people of Pakistan, those want to destabilise the present democratic set up would be contended," Karia said when asked to comment on the recent efforts by opposition parties particularly PML-N for formation of grand opposition alliance.
"This year is the elections year of local bodies and we hope all the provinces and the political parties will make arrangements for the polls to be held this year," he said. The announcement of the local bodies election came at the time when the major opposition party in the National Assembly, PML-N intensified efforts to unite all opposition political parties soon after the separation of MQM from the ruling alliance and has also invited all the hostile political forces to the government to join hands to dethrone the current set up.
Kaira, however, welcomed the recent contacts between the MQM and PML-N leadership in Dubai and London, saying that this was what the PPP wanted in its policy of reconciliation that all the political forces should avoid politics of confrontation. At the same time the PPP leader also expressed the hope that MQM would revisit its decision, saying that the party was in contact with the MQM leadership to bring it back into the coalition.
When asked whether President Asif Ali Zardari who is currently in London had established any contact with MQM chief Altaf Hussain or desires to do so, Karia expressed his ignorance, saying that PPP was in contact with the MQM, but he was not aware of the level of the contacts. He, however, added that PPP would continue the policy of reconciliation with all political parties of the country as envisaged in the charter of democracy (CoD) signed by PPP's slain chairperson Benazir Bhutto and PML-N's chief Mian Nawaz Sharif.
Referring to July 05, the day a democratic Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged by former dictator Zia-ul-Haq in 1977, Kaira said that it was the darkest day of Pakistan's history when a military dictator turned a democratic Pakistan into a land of lawlessness and chaos by giving the country Kalashnikov culture, besides harvesting the seed of sectarianism and extremism that damaged the fabric of society.