ISLAMABAD - Legislators from the Opposition in National Assembly’s Wednesday sitting cast doubts on the upcoming elections being transparent in Sindh because of President Asif Ali Zardari having sway over the provincial election commission. They even doubted that free and fair elections could take place in the province of Sindh.
Zafar Ali Shah, who recently defected from the ruling PPP to the PML-Nawaz, raised the alarm that President Zardari could use the option of manipulating the coming polls in Sindh. It would be difficult to hold free and fair elections in that province, he added.
Expressing similar views, another MNA Ghous Bakhsh Mahar, who left the PML-Quaid and joined the PML-Functional, expressed the hopelessness about a new provincial government to be chosen in free and fair elections in Sindh. “We are hopeless that transparent elections would be conducted,” asserted the parliamentarian from Sindh as he demanded a proper inquiry into the bomb blast in his consistency.
Upon this, PPP’s Shazia Marri, in an emotional tone, said the PPP had resolved all the matters of the province. She also said her party helped out the flood-stricken people in different areas of Sindh.
PML-N’s Zahid Hamid, on a point of order, said this would be the wrong impression that parliamentarians were against the verification of their academic credentials. “Unfortunately, an impression is being created that we are avoiding the verification of our degrees,” he said, and added the opposition leader had also clarified in the House the PML-N was not against the verification process. The PML-N was not creating hurdles for the Election Commission of Pakistan with the objective to slow down the process of scrutiny, reiterated Hamid.
ANP’s MNA Usman, on a point of order, called for a targeted operation in Khuzdar area like the rest of Balochistan. He also questioned, “How much gold was being mined from Baochistan and what percentage it was getting.”
Bashir Virk, a PML-N lawmaker, on a point of order, drew the attention of the House to a building being built in the Constitutional Avenue. “This building should be demolished; it could prove to be dangerous in the future as all sensitive places, including Parliament, embassies could be seen from it,” he added.
PPP legislator Ghafoor Chaudhry said the government should have taken notice of it. “This matter had earlier been discussed in the House,” he recalled.
PML-N’s Khurram Dastgir was of the view that terrorist activities remained at its peak as compared to the rest of the era during this tenure of the PPP government.
At the fag end of the session, Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza proposed to start last three sessions of the House with the National Anthem. “I propose to start last three to four sessions with the National Anthem,” she said. The speaker assured that the next general elections would be free and fair and that nobody should cast doubts on the transparency of the polls.