GUJRAT: PPP Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira said on Friday that Nawaz Sharif is a convict who is not entitled to a reception by the people as the law-enforcement authorities are bound to arrest him on arrival.

However, he condemned the arrest of political workers, saying it was not a good step taken by the caretaker government, adding that the PML-N leadership should be blamed for these arrests that had introduced these ‘standard operating procedures’ to tackle such situations.

He further said that instead of calling out ‘aliens’, the PPP had categorically named the elements within security agencies who had tried to pressurise PPP candidates to return party tickets. The PPP leadership had the moral courage to expose such elements and would continue to do so whenever forced, he added.

Kaira said this while talking to Dawn after meeting Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) Gujrat President Dr Tariq Saleem, Advocate Ansar Dhool and others here on Friday to muster the MMA’s support in NA-70 (Lalamusa-Dinga) in his favour. Mr Kaira is contesting for this seat where the MMA has not pitched any nominee.

The local MMA leaders told Mr Kaira that since they were not compelled or ordered yet to support any party or candidate in NA-70, he could approach the senior leaders of the alliance in the constituency to win their support.

The MMA has a sizeable vote bank in this constituency where the alliance has pitched two candidates for Punjab Assembly seats -- Mian Idrees PP-32 (Dinga) and Syed Ziaullah Shah PP-33 (Lalamusa) -- that fell under NA-70 and was interested in clinching both seats.

Despite its efforts, the MMA could not make seat adjustment with any of the mainstream parties in these constituencies.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2018