By IRNA,
Islamabad : The Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has accused the ruling Peoples Party of launching character assassination campaign against its candidate for the country’s presidency.
PML-N has nominated Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui its candidate, who is challenging Asif Ali Zardari, widower of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in the Presidential election to be held on September 6th.
The election commission Saturday issued final list of candidates leaving Mr. Siddiqui, Mr. Zardari and Mushahid Hussain Sayed of pro-Musharraf’s in the fray for Pakistan’s presidential poll.
Top PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal accused the Pakistan People’s Party of launching a “character assassination” campaign against his party’s presidential candidate ahead of the election.
Iqbal said that the PPP had launched a campaign against Siddiqui even though the former Chief Justice was often invited to that party’s seminars and functions in the past.
“But now all of a sudden, now that (Siddiqui) has been put up as a candidate, they are launching a character assassination campaign against him, which I think is very undemocratic,” Iqbal told reporters.
“If we were to launch a similar campaign, we could do it on a much larger scale but we have shown restraint because we don’t want to go back to the politics of the 1980s and 1990s,” he said.
The PML-N has reservations about Zardari’s candidature “because he happens to be the co-chairman of the PPP, he said.
“Either he (Zardari) must tell the nation that he will resign from the basic membership of the party if he is elected as President or then the presidency will be seen as the PPP’s presidency rather than being seen as representing the unity of the federation,” Iqbal said.
The PML-N, he said, had decided to field a non-partisan candidate like Siddiqui because he could bring back the dignity of the office of President.
“The office of the President became very controversial during Musharraf’s tenure as he was acting as de facto head of the PML-Q,” he said.
However, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who belongs to the PPP, said last night that the premier and the President should be from the same party. Campaigning for Zardari in Karachi, he said the PPP chief could strengthen the federation as he was the leader of a party that has strong roots in all the provinces.
The PML-N, which quit the ruling coalition on Monday after accusing Zardari of reneging on several agreements to reinstate dozens of judges deposed by former President Pervez Musharraf during last year’s emergency, has been insisting that the new President should be a non-partisan candidate.
Musharraf resigned on August 18 to avoid impeachment by the ruling coalition, thus necessitating the holding of presidential polls. A week later, the PML-N pulled out of the coalition.