LAHORE: Terming the general elections scheduled for February 8, 2024 vital ensuring economic stability, former federal minister and the PML-N leader Mian Javed Latif warned that any failure to carry out the basic democratic exercise on the given date would only worsen the situation in Pakistan.

“The PTI wanted to make the elections controversial and was aiming at getting a judgment which could achieve their goals,” he said, adding: “The PML-N was not given a level-playing field in 2018 and no one had raised the issue back then.”

Talking to the media here on Saturday, the PML-N leader reminded that the words of ‘Don’ and the ‘Sicilian Mafia’ have not been taken back till today. “But sometimes a person is called innocent or sometimes he is greeted with the words ‘good to see you’ (in the court),” Javed said.

Responding to a query, he said bring the change in the Constitution, if some says May 9 [violence] isn’t a crime. He was of the view that the opponents want to make the elections controversial. “They want to wrap up the little bit of democracy which has been left,” he added. He blamed the opponents for trying to create a wedge between the institutions and the people.

He reminded that the PML-N fought the Senate polls without an election symbol, and then no one raised a voice. At that time, no one said that injustice should not be done to a party having a two-third majority, he said. He lamented that on social media, a propaganda campaign is going on. Someone is popular on social media too, he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023