LAHORE – The PPP has questioned the authenticity of a recently released popularity survey conducted by the International Republican Institute (IRI) projecting the PML-N as the most popular party of the country.
“A survey conducted on internet and based on the views of only 6,000 people could not be reflective of the true opinion of 80 million voters in Pakistan,” President Zardari’s Coordinator Navid Chaudhry observed while addressing a news conference here at a local hotel. He was accompanied by PPP’s Punjab Deputy Secretary Information Iqbal Sialvi.
Rejecting the findings of the survey, Navid said elections were the only criterion to gauge the performance of political parties. The PPP’s popularity could be judged by its good performance in the by-elections, he added.
President’s coordinator also termed the survey a PML-N-sponsored exercise aiming at defaming the political opponents. He alleged that a special cell headed by Secretary Information, Ghulam Mohayyuddin Wani, had been set up at 9th flour of the Arfa Karim IT Tower in Model Town to sponsor such fake surveys. He further alleged that most of the staff of DGPR had been shifted to that building and the existing one situated on Aibat Road was giving a deserted look.
The PPP leader said people like Pervaiz Rashid, Rana Sanaullah and Raja Anwar had been assigned the task of targeting political opponents ahead of the coming elections.
Replying to a question, he said that the PML-N had been divided into many groups like Maryam group, Capt Safdar group, Nisar group etc.
Talking about the PPP’s performance in the past four-and-half years, he mentioned the BISP, Balochistan Package, NFC Award and constitutional amendments as some of the major achievements of his party’s government.
Making a comparison of the performance of the federal and the Punjab governments, Navid Ch said in past four years the average growth rate in Punjab remained at 2.5 per cent as against 3.4 per cent in the Centre. He said Punjab had witnessed an overall 12 per cent rise in crime rate while robberies had increased by 109 per cent.
The rape incidents had also increased in Punjab by 22 per cent, he said, adding that all these indicators were reflective of bad law and order situation in the province.
Answering another question, he said the PML-N was taking cosmetic measures like laptop scheme, yellow cab scheme and youth festivals etc, whereas the PPP believed in practical steps to serve the people.
He said motorists in Punjab were being forced to deposit token tax for the next 20 years in advance, thereby depriving the coming governments of their share of revenue.