PML-N never won a general election without rigging, alleges PPP's Saeed Ghani

PPP leader Saeed Ghani on Saturday alleged that the PML-N had never won a general election without rigging. Addressing a press conference in Karachi, Ghani said, “The PPP did not secure power through rigging in any of the elections held till today. “On the other hand, however many times the PML-N has secured power, it has not been without rigging.” Ghani, also the Sindh labour minister, made the allegation as he responded to a PML-N member calling on the PPP to not “give lectures on democracy”. “If you do not want to give the PPP the right to speak on democracy, then will you give it to Gen Musharraf or Gen Zia, or the leaders created by them?” he quipped, referring to the two former military dictators. The PPP leader said he “did count the 1985 election”, alleging that PML-N supremo and ex-premier Nawaz Sharif “conspired” against ex-prime minister Mohammad Khan Junejo.

He further claimed that his party “became a target of rigging” in the 1988 and 1990 elections, which resulted in the PML-N winning. He went on to allege that the PPP was again “controlled and prevented from forming a government in Punjab” in 1993. Ghani alleged that the PPP was restricted to “16-17 seats” in the 1997 general elections, when Nawaz’s PML-N again formed the government. He contended that although the PPP secured power in 2008, the “PML-N was made to win seats, especially in Punjab, through rigging during Musharraf’s tenure”. Ghani claimed that the PML-N was “made to win” the 2013 elections as well.

“Then the elections in 2024 [took place]. No matter how many times they say, everyone, even children, know that the PML-N was badly defeated in the elections,” he asserted. The PPP leader alleged that Nawaz, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz “lost their own seats and then blame us”.

Ghani made the remarks after explaining the rationale for his party’s stances on new provinces in Sindh and Punjab, stressing that it was based on the wishes of the people. He emphasised that the Constitution required any such move to be made through the elected representatives in the provincial assembly concerned. He noted that the “people of Sindh, its representatives and its assembly say there is no need for further provinces in Sindh”. On the other hand, Ghani pointed out, the Punjab Assembly and the Senate had passed resolutions over a decade ago calling for two new provinces in Punjab.

“If the people and the elected representatives of Sindh say that there is no need for any new province in Sindh, then no one in Punjab has the right to say whether there should be a new province in Sindh or not,” Ghani asserted. He went on to stress that the PPP advocated for more provinces in Punjab as the “people of Punjab and their elected representatives” desired that. The PPP leader emphasised that his party “represented” the citizens of each of the provinces when taking a stance for Sindh and Punjab. At the outset of his press conference, Ghani also took exception to comments made by “two ministers”, saying it seemed that they “did not know anything about Sindh”. “They are restricted within a circle called Maryam Nawaz. They only see and say what she tells them, shows them and explains to them.” Ghani’s statement came after Punjab’s education and sports ministers held a media briefing earlier in the day, wherein they had said that the chief ministers of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had nothing to say about their performance.