PML-N leader blames PM for attempted rigging in Daska.

Byline: Iftikhar A. Khan

ISLAMABAD -- A Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader, Mohammad Zubair, on Friday held Prime Minister Imran Khan responsible for attempted rigging in Daska by-election.

Speaking at a press conference here, Mr Zubair said Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar was not 'genius enough' to rig Daska by-poll and all responsibility lay on Imran Khan.

He said what happened in Daska was not less than a criminal offence. 'There was no contact between 23 missing presiding officers and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for 13 hours,' the PML-N leader said.

He termed the decision of re-election in Daska as the beginning of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)'s ouster from power.

He said the PTI had created so much fuss to win one seat by manipulative methods and violent acts.

He also launched a verbal attack against Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh who has been fielded by the PTI as a Senate candidate from Islamabad and asked the PTI lawmakers not to vote for a person 'who has no stakes in Pakistan'.

PTI lawmakers asked not to vote for Hafeez Shaikh in Senate election

'Voting for Hafeez Shaikh who has ruined the country's economy would mean burying ideology of the PTI,' Mr Zubair remarked.

Responding to a question, he said the PTI leadership still had time to withdraw Mr Shaikh as its candidate to allow Yousuf Raza Gilani unopposed victory.

He said Mr Shaikh had been living outside the country for 40 years and he came to Pakistan only when he got an opportunity to get a flagged car.

'The old workers of PTI should raise question who is Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and from where he was brought,' he said.

He alleged that former finance minister Asad Umar and other officials who were opposing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme were removed and then Mr Shaikh was brought in. An agreement was reached with the IMF within 15 days of Mr Shaikh's appointment as adviser on finance.

Mr Zubair said it was the gift of the IMF package secured by Mr Shaikh that the masses were suffering from the burden of price hike and economic problems.

He criticised Imran Khan for award of Senate ticket to Mr Shaikh against whom, he said, the PM himself had ordered an inquiry by constituting the debt commission. The prime minister had constituted the debt commission to conduct an inquiry into loans obtained by Pakistan from 2008 to 2013 whereas Mr Shaikh acted as finance minister in PPP tenure up to 2013.

'Imran Khan is hiding the report...