ISLAMABAD - Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz said Monday that former President Asif Ali Zardari's claim regarding victory of Yousuf Raza Gillani in the upcoming Senate election has proved the Opposition's involvement in dirty politics of sale and purchase of loyalties because they have no majority in the National Assembly.

In a tweet, the minister said that the two political parties, the PPP and the PML-N, were responsible for earning bad name for the politics and politicians. Senator Shibli Faraz said that they signed Charter of Democracy but backtracked from the agreement and promoted the horse trading.

Also, Shibli Faraz said that emphasis on secret vote balloting in Senate elections by Pakistan People's Party counsel Mian Raza Rabbani was incompatible with the Charter of Democracy (CoD) and ideology of former Prime Ministers Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. 

Talking to reporters outside the Supreme Court, he said Senator Raza Rabbani, representing the PPP in Supreme Court during proceedings of open vote reference, took the plea which was repugnant to the CoD clauses, inked by Ms Benazir Bhutto and added it tantamount to throwing the agreement in dustbin.

He said it was evident that both parties were opposing people-friendly legislation and had now retracted the CoD. He took leadership of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) to task for their inclination to continue past dirty practice of sale and purchase of votes in Senate elections.

The Minister said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had laid foundations of clean politics in the country and was still making efforts to rid the country of menace of corruption and added PTI had been striving hard for the last some decades to bring about transparency in politics. He said Election Commission was independent, in real terms, for the first time in country’s history.  Responding to a question, he said the PPP and PML-N had retained their seats in bye elections. 

Haleem Adil arrest

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz further said that Sindh government had arrested Opposition Leader in the Provincial Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh on political grounds to victimize him for exposing its corruption and inefficiency.

He said that the plight of Sindh province was a proof of inefficiency and corruption of the government and Haleem Adil was the person who had been exposing the Sindh government’s corruption.