Karachi
A former senior vice chairman of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and ex-acting chief minister on Tuesday described the process of the acceptance and rejection of nomination papers of candidates by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as “the strong establishment’s scripted and calculated move”.
Tariq Jawed, who has also served as a deputy convener of the MQM’s Coordination Committee and is currently its member, said “the double standards” being adopted for the work not only amounted to mockery but was also against national and international norms and Islamic values, besides being immoral and against the country’s survival and solidarity.
He said that on the one hand, the nomination papers of those who had defaulted on bank loans amounting to billions of rupees, got their bank loans written off, built their palaces abroad and inflicted heavy losses on the national exchequer were being accepted without any objections, and on the other, nominations of candidates belonging to poor and middle-class people were being rejected on flimsy grounds.
Jawed said such acts indicated that the current establishment, the caretaker government and the ECP were allowing particular families and wealthy and corrupt people to participate in the May 11 general election, whereas honest people were being kept away from the assemblies.