ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Asad Umar on Tuesday accused the Election Commission of Pakistan of helping the ruling coalition of 13-party Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) by postponing local government elections in the federal capital.
Speaking at a presser shortly after the ECP postponed LG polls in Islamabad, he said that PDM has once again run away from elections in Islamabad which is evident from the postponement of polls by the ECP.
According to Umar, the postponement of LG polls in the capital is a testimony that the government cannot compete with Imran Khan in any part of the country.
He said that the government will try again to postpone the elections in Karachi and Hyderabad, whereas, in Islamabad, opponents have run away from the LG elections.
“We wanted to dissolve Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assemblies just to make them realise who the people of the country vote for, but Rana Sanaullah said that they would use every tactic not to go for elections as they know that their defeat is writing on the wall,” he added.
He said that the decision regarding the Islamabad local government elections was not unexpected, alleging that the Election Commission was not working as an independent state body.
He said the struggle will continue and hoped elections will be held in 2023.
He said Imran Khan has everything, in a democracy power rests with the people, and the people are with the former prime minister.
Referring to Najam Sethi’s appointment, Umar said that those who were participants in ‘regime change’ were getting their share.
He said that ECP’s decision to postpone the polls in the capital is nothing but providing a safe passage to the rulers of ‘imported regime’ in wake of a visible threat of a humiliating defeat in LG polls.
Umar stated that the imported government could not escape the defeat, as PTI filed an intra-court appeal without waiting for the decision of the commission and hoped justice would be done and elections would be held anytime soon.
He said that the imported government was looking for lame excuses to run away from the elections and the ‘biased’ ECP helped the regime in this regard.
He expressed hope that they would get relief from Islamabad High Court to this effect which is set to hear the case today (Wednesday).
He said that the imported rulers made a mockery of the constitution and the law, as when elections were around the corner they announced to change the law in order to increase the union councils and ensure direct elections for mayor and deputy mayor.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022