• Rana Sanaullah assails Imran for ‘always creating deadlock’
• Rejects rigging allegations
TOBA TEK SINGH: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah on Sunday reiterated the government’s offer to the opposition PTI to engage in dialogue and resolve outstanding issues to ensure stability and political reconciliation in the country.
“It is unfortunate that the PTI founder [Imran Khan] was brought into politics despite not being a politician, and he never engaged in real politics,” the premier’s aide told reporters after casting his vote in the constituency of PP-116, where his son-in-law Ahmed Shaharyar is running as the PML-N candidate.
“During his [Imran Khan’s] tenure, his focus remained solely on making cases against his opponents,” he added.
He recalled Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s “unconditional offer” that he made in August to all political parties to become a part of the ‘Misaq-i-Istehkam-i-Pakistan’ (Charter for Stability of Pakistan). “We are still in favour of politicians sitting together at a table to resolve issues,” he said.
Slams Imran
Mr Sanaullah criticised the PTI founder for “always creating a deadlock,” emphasising that “democracy progresses through dialogue”.
“A person is sitting in jail, yet from there he wants to spread chaos, anarchy, and fitna [evil] in the country. There are also recent examples, such as May 9 [2023] and Nov 26 [2024],” he said, referring to Mr Khan and the PTI’s protests.
Responding to a question about the low voter turnout, the senior politician noted that while general elections usually record a turnout of 50 to 60 per cent, by-elections usually saw only around 25 to 30pc on average.
“I contested seven elections in my constituency, out of which I won five,” he said, adding that he had run in two by-elections in the same constituency and had observed that the turnout was always lower than in general elections.
“There should be no incidents like those of Oct 12, 1999, or 2017–2018, when a conspiracy was plotted against Pakistan and a project was launched that injected a culture of hatred [… and] enmity into politics.”
Mr Sanaullah said that all efforts were made by PML-N activists to bring voters to the polling stations, while the opposing independent candidates did not even have camps or polling agents at most polling stations, and were just spreading propaganda on social media.
Rejects rigging allegations
Regarding the allegations of rigging made by some candidates against the PML-N, he said they were completely “baseless”, as every polling station could be observed and there was nothing wrong taking place.
Mr Sanaullah said that no complaint had been received from any polling station throughout the constituency.
He continued that some opponents began alleging code-of-conduct violations “even when only 10 votes had been cast,” but the administration ensured a peaceful polling process.
“The voting process during the by-election proceeded smoothly, no opposition candidate or worker was stopped anywhere in the constituency, and no one has any grounds to complain,” he added.
“But despite that, if someone wants to cry foul, and if someone has started crying foul since yesterday and today morning about rigging, then we have no solution for that.”
He claimed that no arrests were made in the entire constituency, nor was any kind of obstacle created.
‘PML-N deserves votes’
“We hope that people will vote for service, progress and solutions to their issues,” the premier’s aide said, adding that the PML-N was the only deserving party for that.
Mr Sanaullah said voters supported the development agenda of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, who had launched a new era of development during her tenure.
He added that the chief minister had generously approved a number of projects for Faisalabad worth more than Rs70 billion, and she was scheduled to visit Faisalabad to inaugurate these projects.
However, they requested her to postpone the visit due to the by-election in five constituencies of the Faisalabad district in line with the Election Commission of Pakistan’s campaigning rules.
Talking about tensions with India, Mr Sanaullah said Islamabad had strongly responded to New Delhi’s aggression, and added that, for the first time, the world acknowledged that Pakistan had won the war.
Replying to a question about the denial of meetings with the PTI founder in jail, he said that during the party’s government, he (Mr Sanaullah) remained in jail for six and a half months, and except for his family and two lawyers, no one else was allowed to meet him.
Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2025
