Within days of showing its support for Dr Tahirul Qadri in his demand to dissolve the Election Commission of Pakistan, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi held a press conference on Friday to clarify the party’s position.
Qureshi said, “Dr Qadiri had called us to share his grievances and apprehensions about an unbiased interim government. They are the same as ours.”
He said that the PTI was in favour of timely elections and did not want anything or anyone to delay them.
He said PTI’s message for Dr Qadri was the same. He also said that his party had no plans to merge with another party.
He told reporters that PTI wanted to unite all stake holders in their efforts to ensure transparent elections. He said the party was in the process of negotiation with the Muttahida Wahdatul Muslimeen and the Jamaat-i-Islami on the general elections.
He said if elections could not end corruption in Pakistan, they would be useless.
“We are focusing on Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution to stop corrupt people from contesting.”
Qureshi said there was no opposition in Pakistan, just a coalition of political parties in power. He said these parties wanted to perpetuate the arrangement by ‘fixing’ elections.
“They call it the strategy of reconciliation and loot the people of Pakistan in the name of democracy,” he added.
He said most political parties in Pakistan focused on winning the elections. For PTI, he said, victory alone was not important. It wanted to change the people’s lives for the better, he added.
“What’s the use of winning an election if politicians cannot make people happy and change the way the country is governed.”
He said the PTI would not let the status quo to continue playing with the people.
He said the PTI believed that fake-degree members and dual nationals should not be allowed to contest the elections.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 9th, 2013.