Tahir-ul-Qadri announces election boycott
Sunday, March 17th, 2013 10:03:42 by Tahir Khan
Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri announced on Sunday that his party will boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections as old faces will return to the parliament and there will be no positive change.
Addressing several thousands of his supporters in the city of Rawalpindi, Qadri said that his Pakistan Awami Tehrik party will hold protest rallies on the day of elections in Islamabad and several other main cities.
Qadri had led thousands of his supporters in a long-march on Islamabad in January for election reforms. The long-march was ended after four days of sit-in outside the parliament when the government negotiation team promised to accept his demand.
However, he criticized the outgoing government of Pakistan Peoples Party for not honouring its promises with him about election reforms.
Qadri said that the elections will be ‘illegal’ as according to him the election commission was not constituted in line with constitutional provisions.
He said that those people would again contest and reach the assemblies who were allegedly involved in corruption.
“My party will not become a part of the corrupt electoral system, being run by corrupt people as well,” the religious leader said.
He declared the polls under current election commission as fraudulent and said his party will protest on the polling day across the country.
Political analysts are of the view that Qadri’s boycott will not have a major impact on the elections as his party had not been active in politics for years.
He himself returned to Pakistan in December after five years in Canada where he also got Canadian nationality.
According to a Supreme Court verdict, a dual national cannot stand for parliament seat, however.
Qadri is the first religious leader to boycott the elections at a time when the Prime Minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf and the government are facing deadlock over the nomination of an interim Prime Minister.
Both have rejected each other’s proposed candidates but they have two more days to reach an understanding.
Tags: Pakistan Awami Tehrik, pakistan elections, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Tahir-ul-Qadri
Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=39106
Posted by Tahir Khan
on Mar 17 2013. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan, Politics.
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if you continuously repeat the same action over and over again you always get the same reaction. These corrupt elections have taken place for so many years in Pakistan under the false umbrella of democracy. The electoral commission is allowing for those that have fake degrees, who owe loans of billions of rupees, and are bank defaulters to stand in the elections by simply obtaining a stay order from the court. If the process of the elections is against the constitution and is based on continuously giving power to those who have looted the reserves of the country every time they’ve been in power, what hope do we have?
The only hope is to stand up against this corrupt system, refuse to vote and peacefully protest against the failure to deliver a proper democratic system