LAHORE - In case the present government is shown the door as a result of the current political chaos, the Pakistan People’s Party is ready to take part in the mid-term polls.
This indication came from senior PPP leader Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo on Monday as he talked to the media at Lala Musa after offering condolence over the demise of Ch Akram Kaira, uncle of senior PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira.
“The PPP is ready to contest mid-term polls if these become inevitable,” he said while replying to a question. He added that there was no room for the government to commit mistake anymore and it must defuse the looming political crisis sooner than later.
Wattoo has chosen to issue such a statement at a time when the PTI and PAT are preparing to start their long marches towards Islamabad in a couple of days to get rid of the present government.
Though it has been a consistent stance of the PPP that it would not support any undemocratic move aimed at toppling the PML-N government, but at the same time it also seems ready to become the part of any future interim setup and participate in the mid-term elections.
Mian Manzoor Wattoo on this occasion also said that the PPP was a national party with glorious history of struggle for the democracy, and that the people were aware of its credentials as the party of the poor masses. He maintained that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should accept the PTI demands to the maximum extent clearly indicating that he was prepared to bring constitutional amendments for the sake of the continuity of the political system and also getting the country out of the present political crisis.
The PPP leader observed that ironically the PML-N government had developed a tendency for delayed actions when the damage had already been done. “This time too they are making the same mistake”, he added. He advised the government to give free hand to the PTI and PAT workers on August 14 because stopping them to observe peaceful march would be dangerous for the country and its political system. They would not take over the Prime Minister House, Parliament or Supreme Court, he added.
He strongly advocated that the government should not use the police force against the marchers and instead facilitate them like the PPP did during the PAT’s 4-day sit-in protest in 2013 ahead of general elections. He suggested the government should take advice from the PPP leadership regarding handling of the long march.