Saturday, 13 August, 2022 I 14 Muharram, 1444 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XIII No 44 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition
president Alvi ‘reAdy to plAy role’ for defusing rising polArisAtion g
says eVm was solely his idea for free, fair polls LAHORE
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staff report
resident dr arif alvi on friday expressed his readiness to play a role within the Constitutional ambit to bring all political stakeholders on a negotiating table to help defuse the increasing polarisation in the country. speaking to a group of editors and owners of media houses here at the governor’s house, president alvi said though the constitution didn’t allow him
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any such role, however, he would like to facilitate dialogue as an elder in his capacity as president. “i believe there is a need to initiate a consultative process to bring all important stakeholders on the table to listen to each other. however, the constitutional role of the president does not allow me officially to reach out to the stakeholders. Basically, it is the primary responsibility of the executive and the opposition within the assembly and in the mainstream and the relevant institutions to deliberate upon defusing the polarisation,” he said.
Banks must Be used for party funding to keep donations transparent alvi said that as president of pakistan, all state institutions were respected and dear to him and he did not believe in triggering any controversy. “Being president, i had met pm shehbaz more times as compared to his meetings with the then pm imran khan,” president alvi said, adding that the purpose of his media interaction with eminent media persons was to get a qualified input over the prevailing political and economic situation and discuss possible ways and means to bring down the political temperature in the country.
while agreeing with the views of the journalists, alvi said that the political parties and stakeholders needed to sit together and chalk out an agreed way forward, especially with regard to holding free and fair elections and developing a charter of economy. the president, explaining the funding received by pti from abroad, said that under united states laws, if a party wants to collect funds, it has to establish a company. “[the eCp], however, claimed that a ‘company’ sent us funds, whereas, it were those companies
which we established in line with the us and Canadian laws,” he said. “i believe that corruption is a major factor in the backwardness of any country. one of the best ways to counter corruption is to make all financial transactions through formal Banking channels, especially by the political parties while receiving and managing donations,” he added.
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