ISLAMABAD   -   Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Se­nior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry has lashed out at the Election Com­mission of Pakistan (ECP) for post­poning scheduled by-polls just few days ahead of the election date over lame excuse of floods.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Fawad stated that it was strange that Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in as Prime Minister of Paki­stan on the day, when he was to be charged in the Rs 24 billion corrup­tion case. He said that the Ramazan Sugar Mill case has not been heard for the last two years, and now NAB pleaded that the law was amended; hence it now did not fall under its jurisdiction. However, Fawad stated that they could not comment any­thing because it might be contempt of court. Fawad said that the closed-room decisions have neither quality nor durability; hence interest of the country lies in the decisions made by the people, he added.

Fawad Chaudhry said that the mil­lions of people showed solidari­ty with Imran Khan which was un­precedented. About ECP’s decision of postponing by-polls, he said, “Be­sides being biased, the ECP is also suffering from an administrative cri­sis and incompetence, as it declared 40 lakh voters dead and now post­poning the elections after spending billions of rupees out of public mon­ey,” he added. He made it clear that the PTI would get a landslide victo­ry in the elections and that was why the nation saw how the ruling junta run away from the elections.

Fawad Chaudhry further said that the government was not ready to hold elections, because they know that the guarantees of Ahsan Iqbal, Khurram Dastgir and Shehbaz Sharif would be forfeited; hence better to delay the scheduled polls. Fawad Chaudhry said that it is important to maintain insti­tutional balance in the country; final decisions should be made by people instead of taken in the closed-rooms.

He said that the prime minister and the finance minister never held a sin­gle press conference till date but they just kept blaming PTI for the IMF pro­gramme. He said that the PTI govern­ment kept the prices under control despite challenging situation; how­ever, the imported government broke all record of inflation, besides ruining the economy, industries and all other sectors. He further stated that today, the price of petrol and edible oil has reduced in the world, but the peo­ple are facing 45 percent inflation in Pakistan, adding that during PTI era, petrol in the world market was $105 per barrel, today it is $83 per barrel but they increased the price of petrol by Rs 85 per litre.