‘Fresh polls no solution’: Abbasi

F.P. Report

KARACHI: Former prime minister and top leader of the newly launched political party Awam Pakistan Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that holding polls anew will not solve problems faced by the country and urged the army chief, chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) and politicians to find a way out.

“Even fresh polls won’t solve the problems in the country. Army chief, CJP and politicians should sit together and determine a way to run the country,” he said while speaking to journalists outside an accountability court on Monday. It may be noted that political rivals of the ruling coalition — Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — have time and again called for new elections.

Political parties including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), Jamat-e-Islami (JI) alleged vote rigging, interference, and manipulation of the poll results in the February 8 elections. Abbasi’s statement about the fresh polls came after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) withdrew a reference against the ex-premier. Referring to the graft reference pertaining to illegal appointments in Pakistan State Oil (PSO), the ex-premier said that the statement of only a single witness was recorded against him in four years.

He said that the reference was not against corruption and was made in misuse of powers by the anti-graft body. Abbasi went on to say that “the sooner NAB is abolished the better it would be for the country”. “Such cases are started under political engineering. Today is a day to celebrate as the court exonerated us from the charges,” he added.

The former PM and others were accused of illegally appointing a former managing director of PSO, misuse of authority, and causing losses to the national exchequer, in a supplementary reference filed in 2020 with the LNG terminal case. An accountability court in Karachi acquitted Abbasi and others in the LNG case in April this year.