Transparency not possible under rigged electoral system: PAT Chairman

PAT leader Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri has said that there is no room for transparency in the current rigged system. He said that the parliamentary reforms committee held over 150 meetings but the result is before everyone to see. He said that Pakistan is passing through a critical period in its national life. He said that in order to take mega corruption cases to their logical conclusion, no leniency should be shown to the godfather of corruption. He said that whatever can be managed with a ‘painkiller’ today will need a major surgery tomorrow. He said that the electoral campaign run by the ruling family has given the impression that the SC and national security institutions were their opposite candidates. He said that the Election Commission remained mum despite seeing everything.

Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri said that 60,000 votes were cast against those who were the custodians and ‘owners’ of a constituency in Lahore for 35 years. He said that Dr Yasmeen Rashid deserves to be congratulated for braving the might of three governments in a splendid manner.

Dr Qadri made these remarks while talking to the members of the central Core Committee the other day. He said that the results of rigged by-election cannot be a representative opinion of a people who are honest and earn their living through permissible means. He said that present system does not allow the people to say what they are thinking. He said that freedom of expression remains under the pressure of duress, rigging and police intimidation. He said that those who shot at 100 people and killed 14 of them remain at large.

The PAT Chairman said that the rulers targeted the SC and the national security institution in the electoral campaign and the ECP should have taken note of it but it failed to so, adding that it is due to this that we are of the considered view that irrespective of any number of elections being conducted under the current ECP, no good is going to come out of the exercise. He said that those targeting the national institutions are running a campaign to defame them. He said that the godfather thinks that democracy, politics and state is the name of the Sharif being in power.