E-Paper
PPP mulls boycotting polls under Musharraf
Bhutto's party may boycott this year's general elections in the wake of rigging and violence in last week's Sindh by-polls.
Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party may boycott this year's general elections in the wake of "rigging and violence" in last week's Sindh by-polls.
In view of the "rigging and violence" in the Sindh polls, PPP was not averse to the idea of boycotting the general elections advocated earlier by Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) leader Nawaz Sharif, senior PPP leader Amin Fahim said.
In the absence of a consensus over forming a national government and the present government's failure to form an independent election commission, his party had no hope of transparent polls under the present regime, Fahim said.
He accused the government of "breaking all previous records of rigging" during the by-polls.
Fahim, who is the Chairman of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy in which PPP and PML-N are dominant partners said, he earlier advocated participation in the polls as it was the only way to achieve democracy.
However, with the experience of the heavily rigged by-polls, his party would keep all options open, including a boycott of the next general elections, he said.
Fahim demanded the dissolution of the present government, formation of a new government with national consensus and an empowered election commission to hold free, fair and transparent polls.
