Yesterday, the Army Chief General Asim Munir cautioned the people against selling their conscience for the sake of money, and urged them to exercise their right of vote carefully in upcoming general elections.
While addressing the participants of Pakistan National Youth Conference at Jinnah Convention Center in Islamabad, the Army Chief noted that as the Country is heading towards general elections on February 08, the people must not “sell their votes for Rs 5,000” and elect their representatives with extreme caution.
Interestingly, as the Army Chief was asking the people not to fall prey to lust of money or getting undue favors, powerful circles’ favorite child – Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) – continues to be indulged in sprinkling money to attract voters though a stage has already been set for them to sail through the upcoming elections comfortably without facing any potential theat.
On January 23, the PML-N Supremo Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz held an election rally in Lahore’s NA-130 Constituency to mobilize party workers but in a quite embarrassing or rather disgraceful manner to democratic norms, the party threw money in the rally to buy people’s votes and to ensure their large participation in the gathering.
Astonishingly, even the PML-N Secretary Information Marriyum Aurangzeb also posted the scenes on X of money being thrown at rally participants.
لاہور نواز شریف کا ہے اور اُس کا ہی رہے گا بس الحمدللہ pic.twitter.com/7HaCF3MP9k
— Marriyum Aurangzeb (@Marriyum_A) January 23, 2024
In addition to that, ahead of PML-N’s public gathering in Mandi Bahauddin, the party’s local leadership also sprinkled bundles of cash money from the stage to attract voters.
مسلم لیگ ن منڈی بہاؤالدین میں کل جلسہ کرے گی جہاں شہباز شریف نے خطاب کرنا ہے
اسٹیج سے نوٹ پھینکے جارہے ہیں
یہ پیسے لٹانے کے پیچھے کیا حکمت کارفرما ہو سکتی ہے ؟ pic.twitter.com/EVAUtlC4Gy— Umar Daraz Gondal (@umardarazgondal) January 24, 2024
Though it was a clear violation of the Code of Conduct of the Elections Act but PML-N has been indulging in it with full immunity as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) – whose role now has apparently been seized to only crush a particular political party and creating impediments in its way by all means – seems to be intentionally turning a blind eye to such malpractices by PML-N.
