ISLAMABAD, Jul 22 (DNA): Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on
Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety, Faisal Karim Kundi termed in-time
elections as the only way to ensure political stability in the country.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Faisal Kundi said that
the Pakistan People’s Party had a very clear stance that assemblies
should complete their tenure and the caretaker government and Election
Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should conduct elections within 60 days.

The SAPM said: “60 days are enough for an election campaign; however, if
coalition political parties want 90 days for the campaign, the PPP is
ready for that.”

Commenting on the reservations of political parties including the PPP
over conducting elections on the basis of the new census, he said, “It
is better to conduct elections on the previous census.”

About the Sindh government’s rehabilitation efforts for the
flood-affected people in the province, Faisal Kundi said that the Sindh
government had fulfilled its promise of providing houses to those
families affected due to floods.

“The Sindh government has provided land rights to 5,000 flood-affected
families in the province. The funds for the construction of 50,000
houses have been released so far.”

The SAPM said, “The provincial government will provide a total of
2,00,000 to the women head of family.”

He said although the flood had affected many parts of the country, the
way the Sindh government had responded to this calamity in terms of
providing relief to those affected was exemplary. “The PPP government
will replicate the same model of providing houses to its people in the
other provinces too in the future,” he said.

About the cipher issue, Faisal Kundi said that the former Principal
Secretary of the former Prime Minister, Azam Khan had exposed all the
false claims related to the cipher. “The whole country was handed over
to a person who could not retain a piece of paper (cipher),” he said.

Faisal Kundi said: “The PPP is not against any political party but those
involved in the May 09 violence should be taken to task.” He said that
the incident of May 9 would not happen if those involved in the attack
on PTV in the past were punished.

Faisal Kundi said: “Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto has pursued
effective diplomatic policies which helped revive and strengthen
relations between Pakistan and other countries.”

He said that the coalition government had faced enormous economic
challenges but succeeded in steering the country out of the crisis due
to its prudent policies. About the Benazir Income Support Program
(BISP), the federal minister highlighted that the first-ever dynamic
National Socio-Economic Survey was being carried out successfully across
the country.

“Under the Benazir Kafaalat program, around Rs 72 billion have been
disbursed among eight million families,” he informed.

Responding to a question, Faisal Kundi said, “PPP has always emphasized
on ensuring the rule of law and conveyed to all the political parties
that elections should be conducted within 60 days.”

To another question, he said, “No patriotic citizen can justify what
happened on May 9 and those involved in it should be dealt with
strictly.”