<\/p>\n
PPP leader and former federal minister Abdul Qadir Baloch has suggested postponing elections in areas that are under security threat, saying that by-polls could be held in these constituencies later.<\/p>\n
Last month, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and President Arif Alvi agreed on February 8, 2024<\/a> as the date for polls. The development stirred activities in the camps of most political parties.<\/p>\n However, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Ghulam Ali recently said it was difficult to carry out<\/a> political activities in parts of KP and Balochistan due to the security situation. Similarly, JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman also raised questions on the feasibility of holding elections amid a \u201cdeteriorating<\/a>\u201d security situation.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, caretaker Inter\u00adior Minister Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti, while emphasising the government\u2019s readiness to ensure peaceful general elections, acknowledged<\/a> the terrorist threats faced by political leaders in the run-up to the polls, highlighting a general threat to political figures, with a specific alert for the JUI-F chief.<\/p>\n In an interview on Dawn News<\/em> programme \u2018Doosra Rukh\u2019 on Saturday, PPP\u2019s Baloch said it was more suitable to delay elections in sensitive areas instead of postponing the polls entirely.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a country with 236 seats, it is not appropriate to postpone elections for seven to eight seats and derail the democracy,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n He stated that Balochistan, just like KP, was also under threat from the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).<\/p>\n \u201cAttack by the TTP in Balochistan are way higher than those by Baloch separatists,\u201d the PPP leader said, highlighting that Kalat, Mastung and neighbouring areas were often targeted by the outlawed organisation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe threats are imminent and the separatist elements do not believe in parliamentary politics,\u201d Baloch stated, adding that these elements were hindering election campaigns in the province.<\/p>\n The PPP leader also said that Bugti should not have openly announced the threats to Fazl on media and instead could have communicated the same to the JUI-F leader in directly.<\/p>\n Baloch further stated that the government, being aware of the threats, should take action to protect politicians in the country and fulfil its responsibility.<\/p>\n It must be noted that Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in terror activities in recent months, especially in KP and Balochistan, after the TTP ended its ceasefire with the government in November last year.<\/p>\n According to data released by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), the country experienced 34 per cent increase in anti-state violence last month.<\/p>\n A policeman was martyred<\/a> in a bomb blast in Balochistan\u2019s Khuzdar today. Earlier this week, six people, including four children, were wounded<\/a> in an IED explosion in a busy locality in Peshawar.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PPP leader and former federal minister Abdul Qadir Baloch has suggested postponing elections in areas that are under security threat, saying that by-polls could be held in these constituencies later. Last month, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and President Arif Alvi agreed on February 8, 2024 as the date for polls. The development stirred […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/12\/101148314e95102.jpg?r=114832","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}