Islamabad November 22, 2007: The Pakistan
Peoples Party in its Central Executive meeting on November 20, 2007 held at
Bilawal House under the Chairpersonship of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto reviewed
the political situation in the country and discussed whether to take part in
the forthcoming General Elections scheduled for January 8, 2008.
The members were of the view that a fair general
election could not be held while there was a state of Emergency, the offices
of the Chief of Army Staff and President were still held by one person, an
independent Election Commission was still to be constituted, the Mayors who
controlled the guns and funds (police and state resources) were still in
place, improvised polling stations existed, candidates, polling agents and
lawyers and others were still behind bars, judges had been arrested and
media gagged. Moreover 110 candidates of the regime were being provided
25,000 extra ballots prior to cast of vote, to give them a lead, and other
electoral reforms still remained.
The PPP noted that if the political parties
boycotted the general elections, the regime would not need to rig the
elections. The PPP noted that it participated in the abortive election of
1977, when Quaid-e-Awam Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was imprisoned in Kot
Lakhpat jail and its workers were being flogged during the reign of terror
unleashed by the usurper of the late seventies.
The PPP noted that an effort was being made to
talk to other political parties about forming a credible alternative to
General Musharraf’s regime, which could signal to the people of Pakistan
that there was a common agenda, a common plan, and a common goal. In this
connection the formation of an interim government of national consensus was
being discussed, composed of those nominated by political parties to oversee
a fair, free, impartial election by January 8, 2008.
Pending the formation of such a grouping, a
common plan, goal and agenda, the PPP would allow its candidates to file
nomination papers in protest to expose the rigging plans of the regime,
while reserving the right to review its course of action in the coming days
and weeks in consultation with other political parties.
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