Fazl, Arif continue to campaign in presidential polls

Fazl says he expects the MQM-P would seriously consider his name for the post

After Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) declared all four candidates — PTI’s Arif Alvi, PPP’s Aitzaz Ahsan, PML-N and other opposition parties’ Maulana Fazlur Rehman and his covering candidate PML-N’s Amir Muqam — eligible for the upcoming presidential election scheduled for Sept 4, candidates have paced up their election campaign.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief and a joint candidate of Opposition parties excluding PPP, Maulana FazlUr-Rehman yesterday reached Quetta to woo the members of the Provincial Assembly, National Assembly and the Senate from the province.

Fazl who has been nominated by Opposition parties including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Awami National Party, National Party, Pakhtunkhwa Millia Awami Party, Jamaat-e-Islami and other smaller parties of the opposition camp is desperately seeking a joint opposition vote against the ruling PTI.

However, luck doesn’t seem to smile on him as a major party of the opposition camp Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has refused to become part of the joint opposition and has put forward its own candidate, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan for the office of President.

PTI’s Arif Alvi yesterday after concluding his Balochistan visit reached Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province where his party is in power to seek parliamentarians’ support there. He was accompanied by Jahangir Khan Tareen of the PTI whose influence in other parties is termed to be quite useful and who played an instrumental role in winning support of the independent MPAs and MNAs for PTI’s government at the Centre and Punjab.

Maulana Fazl earlier on Wednesday visited Bahadurabad,

PPP’s defection has made it quite an uphill task for Opposition, excluding the PPP, to get its candidate elected as president. MQM-P and GDA are already coalition partners of the PTI government at the Centre and have given their support for ruling party’s candidate Arif Alvi.

the headquarters of Muttahida Qaumi MovementP (MQM-P) and sought their support. He also called on Pir Pagara at Kingri House to seek support of Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA).

Uphill task

However, PPP’s defection has made it quite an uphill task for Opposition excluding PPP to get its candidate elected as President. MQM-P and GDA are already coalition partners of the PTI government at the Centre and have already announced their support for the ruling party’s candidate Arif Alvi.

While talking to media persons after meeting the MQM-P leadership, Fazl said, “Opposition has reposed confidence in me for maintaining a balance in Pakistani politics.”

Maulana Fazl, who had lost the July 25 elections on two National Assembly seats in his hometown of Dera Ismail Khan to PTI, said he expected that the MQM-P would seriously consider his name.

To a question, he said that he was still in touch with former president and PPP cochairman Asif Ali Zardari and hoped that he would succeed in breaking the ice regarding fielding a consensus candidate of all opposition parties.

Speaking on the occasion, Amir Khan of the MQM-P said that his party enjoyed cordial relations with Maulana, but it was too late since his party was part of the federal government.

On the other hand, PPP’s nominee Aitzaz Ahsan has urged Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf members to do justice and vote him for the office of the President. While talking to media persons here at the Election Commission office, Aitzaz said “It is a vote of conscience, not of any party.”

Referring to Maulana Fazlur Rehman, he reiterated that consensus could not be built on a joint opposition candidate,