Sheikh Rashid to move court if by-polls postponed

[Naveed Yaseen]

Awami Muslim League (AML) chairman Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has announced to move court in case by-polls are postponed on the request of the PML-N.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, Sheikh Rashid Ahmad slammed the PML-N leadership for creating hurdles in the democratic process, saying it was merely playing the role of a friendly opposition and did not want to be the part of the Parliament. He said both the main political leaders of the country were only following the dictates of the foreign powers and had done nothing for the poor.

He said if law and order was the excuse to postpone the polls, elections could not be held in any constituency of Pakistan. He said the application to postpone the polls was also a conspiracy to obstruct his way into politics.

He said that a seat had been lying vacant for last seven months but no election had been held on it and the repeated delay of the elections clearly showed that the PML-N had lost. He went on say that the PML-N leadership considered NA-55 a worthless constituency but they must remember it was an area comprising nearly two million people.

To a question, he said he would appear before the Lahore High Court chief justice against the postponement of polls and also request Chief Justice of Pakistan Ifitkhar Mohammed Chaudhry to take suo motu of the issue.

He said both the National Assembly constituencies, NA-55 and NA-123, were going to write a new history in the national politics and the entire country would know what people wanted. “I am going to contest the polls and it would be decided which party stands where,” he added.

To another query about his possible seat adjustment with some other political party, Sheikh Rashid said he had only met Jamaat e Islami (JI) Rawalpindi ameer so far, requesting him to support him in the polls.

He said the JI was an organized party and its leader had sought time to discuss the issue with other party members. JAP to defend by-polls: The Judicial Activism Panel has decided to defend the by-election against the Punjab government, which has filed a petition in the Lahore High Court regarding postponement of by-elections on Monday.

In an emergency meeting held on Monday, the JAP office-bearers, under the chairmanship of Muhammad Azhar Siddique advocate, appealed the Lahore High Court and the Supreme Court to take suo motto notice of the move by the provincial government to provide justice to people. They were of the view that plea for the postponement of by-election was an act of cowardice on the part of the Punjab government.

They said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had wanted to get its chief elected of NA-123 but people had seen the real picture of the PML-N as it had been involved in toppling the democratically elected government with the help of Osama Bin Laden besides getting money from the secret agencies in the Zia regime. Muhammad Azhar Siddique also intended to contest elections on NA-123 in the by-election.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=200655