PDM leaders vow to hinder Parvez Elahi’s bid to become Punjab CM n Coalition setup won’t succumb to any pressure from PTI chief for holding early elections.

LAHORE    -    Unfettered by the PTI’s thumb­ing victory in Punjab’s by-elec­tions, the ruling alliance led by the PML-N Tuesday decided not to go into the elections before the expiry of the federal govern­ment’s constitutional term and take measures to put the econo­my on the right track.

The PDM leaders who gath­ered here at the Model Town res­idence of Prime Minister Sheh­baz Sharif also decided to hinder Ch Parvez Elahi’s bid to become new chief minister of Punjab.

This important huddle was at­tended by Prime Minister Sheh­baz Sharif, the PPP supremo Asif Ali Zardari, Maulana Fazlur Reh­man and second line leadership of the PDM parties. Khalid Ma­qbool and Wasim Akhtar rep­resented the MQM while Tariq Bashir Cheema, Iftikhar Hussain and Shahzain Bugti spoke for their respective parties.

The coalition leaders had lengthy discussion over the emerging political scenario in the wake of PTI’s landslide victory in the recent by-elections on 20 Pun­jab Assembly seats. They also de­bated the pros and cons of hold­ing early elections and formation of new government in Punjab.

Sources privy to the meeting told The Nation that the PDM leadership expressed a unani­mous view that they should not go into the early elections as the public opinion was against the current dispensation due to in­flation and rupee’s downward slide against the dollar. The en­tire leadership agreed that re­sults of early elections would be no different from those of the re­cent by-polls.

The meeting also devised a strategy on how to block the on­ward movement of the PTI chief Imran Khan and decided to fight tooth and nail against all his moves on the political chess­board. The leaders also decid­ed to take all the measures need­ed to fix the dwindling economy without fear of political backlash.

Sources said that the PDM leadership also mulled a strate­gy to stop the biggest province from going into the hands of the PTI. They considered this option despite the PML-N leaders con­ceding defeat in the by-elections.

“The federal government will complete its term. Let there be no confusion about it”, the PML-N’s firebrand Saad Rafique an­nounced during a press confer­ence after the meeting. He was accompanied by leaders of the coalition parties. He made it clear that the government will not succumb to any pressure from the PTI chief for holding early elections. The federal min­ister said the government will not hesitate taking tough deci­sions for economic turnaround in the remaining period. Saad also disagreed with wide­ly held view that recent by-elec­tions in Punjab were a measure of political parties’ popularity or otherwise. “Punjab by-elec­tions are in no way a measure of popularity or unpopularity of a party”, he asserted.

Giving a positive spin to his party’s decisive defeat in the by-elections, Saad Rafique said that the PML-N and the allies had jointly won five Punjab As­sembly seats which actually be­longed to the PTI. “These 20 seats are the ones which the PML-N could not win in the 2018 elections. There were in­dependent candidates on these seats and also those of the PTI­in 2018”. Saad Rafiq maintained, and added: “In general, our vote has increased by 39 percent”.

“In today’s meeting, the ques­tion was also raised as to why the Election Commission was not deciding the foreign fund­ing case”, he told the media, and also sought an early decision on this case.

“Foreign funding case pend­ing for years should be decid­ed”, he said. The federal min­ister also expressed PDM’s disapproval of the Supreme Court’s interpretation of Arti­cle 63-A which ruled that votes of defectors in any election in the Assembly will not be count­ed. We have reservations about the court decision on the inter­pretation of 63-A. We believe that this decision is against the spirit of the Constitution and should be reviewed. The Su­preme Court Bar review peti­tion has been pending in the Supreme Court for several days. Our appeal is that this review petition should be heard by the full court and a decision should be given as soon as possible”, he said, adding that the division of powers was clear in the consti­tution. “Legislation is the right of parliament, it should not be interfered with”, he affirmed.

Taking jibes at the jubilation in the PTI’s camp over victory in by-elections, Saad said: “What is this all the celebration about? Not only will this storm be pushed back its further move­ment will also be blocked,” he averred.

Talking about the PTI Chair­man Imran Khan’s onslaught against institutions and the political parties, Rafique said that Imran Khan was plotting against the institutions to make them controversial.

“The PTI wants the chief jus­tice of its choice, chief of army staff of its choice, prime min­ister of its choice, media of its choice”, Saad remarked.

Reacting to Khan’s criticism of the Chief Election Commis­sioner, Saad said: “Those who got five seats [in by-elections] are praising the Election Com­mission and the one who got 15 is raising hue and cry. If you can give all these seats to him, the so-called Amirul Momineen would only then be satisfied”.

Saad called Imran a misguided person who had created a group of misguided people found ev­erywhere. “He is the person on whom the demons descend”, he mocked the PTI chief.

He alleged Pakistan was on the brink of economic bank­ruptcy due to Imran Khan’s four years of misrule.

“We would have liked to re­treat and save our politics, but we put a necklace of thorns around our necks in the wider interest of Pakistan. We knew that landmines were planted but we did not run away from our country”, he observed.

Meanwhile, the PPP-P presi­dent Asif Ali Zardari dashed to PML-Q chief’s Lahore residence here to meet with Ch Shujat Hussain immediately after leav­ing Model Town where he at­tended the PDM meeting.

Ch Shujat’s son and MNA Ch Salik Hussain was also present in the meeting. Both the lead­ers discussed the current polit­ical situation as Zardari sought his party’s backing for the fed­eral government.