Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Saad Rafique has reacted strongly to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s demand for local government elections, saying that holding elections in the same manner as the Karachi local government elections would be worse than not holding elections at all.
In his statement, Saad Rafique said Bilawal’s call for local government systems in Lahore and Islamabad was valid, but he opposed introducing a system similar to the one implemented in Karachi. He argued that local elections should be transparent, fair, and widely accepted by the public.
Rafique said the style in which the previous local government elections were conducted in Karachi should not become a model for other cities. According to him, Lahore should not be subjected to the same local government structure and electoral process that was used in Karachi.
He added that anyone seeking more details about the Karachi elections could consult Jamaat-e-Islami leader Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman or MQM-Pakistan chairman Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, who had also raised concerns about the process.
Bilawal Bhutto had earlier told the National Assembly that local governments were functioning in areas governed by the PPP and accused the PML-N of avoiding local elections. He demanded local government elections across Pakistan and announced that Gilgit-Baltistan would hold such elections within 90 days after the formation of the new government.