Nowshera by-polls: PPP withdraws candidate in favour of PML-N nominee

PESHAWAR: After Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-(JUI-F), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has also withdrawn its candidate in favour of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate in the by-elections on PK-63, Nowshera. PPP central information secretary Faisal Karim Kundi announced the decision at a joint press conference with the PML-N provincial leader Amir Muqam at his party’s secretariat on Monday. The PPP and PML-N activists including Gohar Inqilabi and Ikhtiar Wali were present on the occasion. Faisal Karim Kundi said his party supported the PML-N candidate, who was a runner-up in the previous election.

Appreciating the PML-N candidate, the PPP leader said he had remained active in the constituency and his party would support him in the forthcoming by-election. He said the “inefficient” and “corrupt” rulers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had made life miserable for the people during over two years of government.

Kundi said that the accountability commission in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been closed while the National Accountability Bureau (NABhad has shut its eyes to the ongoing alleged corruption of the rulers.

The PPP leader said the KP was producing oil and gas but the people were being subjected to a severe gas load-shedding. He said the inefficient rulers had also earned a bad name for the Pakistani passport throughout the world.

The PPP leader believed that the PTI government had accepted foreign funding for the party but still the Election Commission of Pakistan was silent over the issue. Speaking on the occasion, PML-N provincial president Amir Muqam said that they had brought a Jirga to seek support from PPP. He thanked PPP for accepting the request and withdrawing candidate in favour of his party aspirant.

He said the PTI government was dropping bombshells on the masses with each passing day by increasing prices of oil, gas and essential commodities. The PML-N leader said the people would reject the PTI candidate and vote for the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) contestant in the by-election.

Amir Muqam posed a question as to why Prime Minister Imran Khan had kept the foreign funding case pending for years if he was not involved in the practice. He said the government will have to tell the nation how much funds it had received so far and from which countries. He said the PDM would stage a protest outside the office of Election Commission today (Tuesday).