ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party is playing on both sides of the wicket as the country moves through the controversy over the general elections.
The PPP wants to save the government until the end of the five-year term but also remains active to raise voice for the supremacy of the Constitution. PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari - the incumbent Foreign Minister - has been pushing his Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to agree for talks with the opposition to find a middle way out of the persistent crisis.
Bilawal also disagrees with an option within the coalition government to drag the polls beyond the five-year term which will need some real excuses as the Constitution has no room to delay elections outside the given time limits.
PPP supremo Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal’s assertions to protect the Constitution and show flexibility towards the opposition give an impression that they might be thinking to jump off the coalition ship just ahead of the polls to give themselves a chance to play a little more freely before elections.
This option has not been the top agenda for the PPP but has not been ruled out if the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) sticks to inflexibility.
Yesterday, Asif Ali Zardari ruled out any possibility of contesting next general elections in alliance with the Pakistan Democratic Movement.
Zardari said when removing Imran Khan, they knew there were difficulties but they had to stop Imran Khan otherwise he would have sold the country.
The PPP meanwhile has postponed the protest to be held across Sindh today.
PPP leader Nisar Khoro said the PPP was postponing its protest as a show of ‘restraint.’
“We demand from all institutions including the judiciary to listen to the voice of the people and conduct elections in the country on one day,” he maintained.