Lahore:
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Saturday tried to push its advantage under ‘Runners-up Formula’ and required national assembly seats in Punjab on technical reasons despite not being runners on most of them, Express Pakinomist has learned.
PPP Central Punjab President and former Prime Minister Raja Perez Ashraf, together with PPP Secretary and former Senate chairman Nayar Hussain Bukhari, approached a joint press conference in Laore with senior PML-N leaders Hanif Abbasi, Federal Railway Minister and Minister of Parliament Tariq Fazl Chaudhry.
The leaders formally announced that both parties agreed on a seat adjustment mechanism.
According to the event, the party, which field a candidate like runner-up, would receive unconditional support from the other, they said.
Express Pakinomist had previously reported that PPP would refrain from field candidates against PML-N and instead lean on the ‘Runners-Up’ event. However, background discussions with PPP office carriers indicate that the party is pressing for additional seats in Punjab by invoking “technical conditions”.
A PPP office carrier revealed that the party is looking at NA-1 (chitral), NA-143 (Sahiwal), NA-175 (Muzaffargarh) and NA-185 (Dera Ghazi Khan). He argued that PPP candidates had secured more votes than their PML-N colleagues in these constituencies and therefore deserved the seats. “We have searched these seats from PML-N,” he claimed.
When PPP was pressed for the fact that PPP was not runner-up in any of these Punjab election circles except Muzaffargarh, the source maintained that their vote voted for the PMLs exceeded in several cases.
However, the study of results tells another story. For example, in Dera Ghazi Khan, the PML-N candidate had disputed as an independent and came in second place, while PPP’s Dost Muhammad Khosa ended up in third place. In Sahiwal, the seat was open to Istehkam-E-Pakistan Party (IPP), where Nouman Ahmad Langrial was contested as an IPP candidate while PPP completed a distant fifth.
“The rules for runners only apply where the PML-n candidate was not ahead of ours,” the PPP source insisted. When asked about the PP-89 Faisalabad, which was also opened to IPP, the source clarified that the party’s focus was specifically on the four election circles.
Meanwhile, a senior PPP leader admitted that he had limited knowledge of recent developments, but said his conversations with the central leadership suggested that the Punjab party could only secure NA-175.
PPP General Secretary Nayar Hussain Bukhari, who spoke with the Express Pakinomist, confirmed that the party had accepted the formula “in principle”.
When asked about seats, PPP searched for “technical reasons,” he replied, “We will keep discussions with PML-N about seats where such controversy would arise”.
Pressed further on whether the modalities had ended, Bukhari added: “These details would be prepared later”.
