HYDERABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Central General Secretary Ahsan Iqbal terming the year of 2022 as the year of elections said that next elections should be fair and transparent.

The chaos will escalate if the vote of people is stolen as in the 1970 general elections vote was not respected in the then East Pakistan and Pakistan went torn into two pieces, he said addressing media at Hyderabad Press Club here Monday.

He said the so-called new Pakistan of Imran Khan has become a nightmare. He said the Constitution was drafted to protect the democratic Pakistan of Quaid-e-Azam. He alleged that the country was being ruled with 'power of bullet' He said the supreme body of Parliament has been made toothless.

He said the decisions of the Supreme Court are being disrespected in this new Pakistan, where the government is giving NRO to itself. He further said that Quaid-e-Azam, who believed in constitution and democracy, had told the nation a clear path to save Pakistan.

He said that when the economy and politics of the country were disrupted, there would be a security chaos, and the power of the people would be weakened by the power of bullets in the country. Declaring the year of 2022 as the year of general elections, he said that the PML-N's slogan "Respect the Vote" is the slogan of the nation's rule. Apart from that, the vote is the power of the poor people.

The PML-N leader said that the votes of the people were snatched in the 2018 elections, and resultantly the plight of the people today is in front of everyone.

He said inflation, unemployment and hunger have increased, while the pace of development has slowed down.

Ahsan Iqbal said the CPEC project was a plan to change the destiny of the country, which had slowed down due to wrong policies of the present government.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021