Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Shahbaz Government’s by-election postponement plea is a conspiracy against democracy: Moonis Elahi

N League’s Punjab by-election postponement plea moved in Lahore High Court amounts to denying the people their constitutional right to vote and reflects a defeatist mentality. This was stated by senior leader of Pakistan Muslim League Moonis Elahi while talking to a delegation of PML workers belonging to NA 123. He said the plea that the law and order situation in Punjab was not conducive for the holding of by-election was in effect Shahbaz Government’s admission of failure to restore order in the province along with its failures on all other fronts. He said that this plea was moved considering the waning popularity graph of N League and it once again revealed the anti democratic designs of the N League leadership as they could not accept defeat in the face of growing criticism against their government’s poor performance record in Punjab since 2008.

Moonis Elahi said that postponing election in Lahore from where the Sharifs had won in the past was another proof of the fast decline in their popular support. He reiterated PML’s resolve to become party to the case in LHC and fight a legal battle to protect voters’ rights along side other democratic forces and not let the minority government of Shahbaz Sharif repeatedly sabotage democracy and election process in the province. He strongly criticized Shahbaz Government for moving the court for postponement of election in two National Assembly and as many Punjab Assembly constituencies and warned that the said plea could have far reaching adverse implications on country’s politics and render an irreparable blow to the image of Pakistan in the world. He said that the N League due to its anti democratic norms was responsible for the derailment of democracy in the past and by attempting to stall the election process in the four constituencies it was once again committing the same crime and it was evident that the N League leadership had learnt nothing from past mistakes.

Moonis Elahi was also extremely critical of the recent decision of Punjab Government of distribution of flour to appointed tandoors through a courier company. He said that hiring of a courier company for this purpose was beyond comprehension as there were government departments and staff available to perform the same task without any burden on the treasury.