BAHAWALPUR: Pakistan Democratic Movement chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has claimed that the Senate election through show of hands will not be possible.

Speaking to the media here on Wednesday, Maulana Fazl alleged that with the announcement of the prime minister that the Senate election would be conducted through show of hands meant that the whole of the cabinet was illiterate.

He claimed that if the PDM’s component parties’ lawmakers would not submit resignations, why the government was nervous.

He said only the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had the powers to announce Senate elections in the country asking who had vested these constitutional powers to the government. He called upon the ECP to take serious notice of this decision of the government as it could be held only through secret ballot.

He said if the government was not upset about PDM’s rallies and current drive against it, why Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced election of Senate in February instead of scheduled date of March. The PTI government, he said, had lost its senses. He said the general election in the country was inevitable.

He said the PDM’s component parties were on the same page and they had decided to tender en masse resignations from the assemblies.

Answering a question about benami properties and his assets and the government plan to move NAB against him, Maulana Fazl said the government had in fact moved the NAB against itself. He urged the armed forces of Pakistan not to provide protection to what he said an “illegitimate” government.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2020