ISLAMABAD: Terming the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) protest call an attempt to spread anarchy, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has categorically said no to politics of agitation which they say may be seen as leading to destabilising the democratic structure of the country.
“The party has very serious reservations about the general elections 2013 and believes that invisible hands were at play to ensure pre-determined results, but it will not join any agitation or movement to upset the democratic structure,” PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar quoted party’s co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari as saying.
He read out the written message during a public meeting in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lower Dir on Mr Zardari’s behalf.
Imran Khan’s PTI and Allama Tahirul Qadri have announced to stage protest demonstrations in the federal capital against alleged rigging in last year’s national polls.
Qadri staged a similar protest in the run up to the historic May 11 elections, when he and thousands of his followers took to the streets in Islamabad demanding sweeping changes in the country’s electoral system.
The event in Lower Dir was organised by the PPP’s KP chapter to mark the first martyrdom anniversary of party activists who were killed in a militant attack during the election campaign last year.
“Despite obvious rigging and manipulation in the poll results, the party will not come out on the streets,” said Babar.
He said that former president Zardari has reminded that elections were manipulated against the PPP and democratic forces of the country in the past also.
The PPP spokesman said that in at least one such case of gerrymandering, the involvement of “invisible hands” doling out to anti-PPP elements monies stolen from a bank has been recently established.