LAHORE: The Pakistan People’s Party has criticised inclusion into cabinet of former bureaucrats, who had served as loyal lieutenants of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz during its tenure in power.

“(Former bureaucrats) Ahad Cheema, Fawad Hassan Fawad and Tauqeer Shah had been part of the PML-N government and now they have been appointed as ministers in the caretaker set-up,” Punjab PPP general secretary Syed Hassan Murtaza said at a press conference here on Wednesday.

Flanked by acting president Rana Farooq, Samina Khalid Ghurki, Samina Pagganwala and others, he alleged that as ministers these former officers were working for the benefit of the PML-N which, he said, was acting as a spokesperson for the Election Commission of Pakistan. He said the N-League was making an issue out of census and new demarcation of constituencies only to avert the general election.

Demanding a level-playing field for all the contesting parties, he said PML-N could have given a date for the new elections like the schedule for demarcations of constituencies had intentions of the former ally been fair.

Mr Farooq said had polls in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa been held on May 14, as per the court order, the situation (of political stability) would have been different but the PML-N escaped from the electoral contest in its own interest. He demanded that the elections should be held in a fair and free manner and all players, including the PTI, should be allowed to take part in.

He told a questioner that the PPP was disinterested in striking an electoral alliance with Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s JUI.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2023