The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will hold a hearing on January 23 on the petition of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) against rigging and miscounting in the second phase of local elections in Sindh, a statement said.
Jamaat-e-Islami had filed complaints regarding rigging and wrong counting of votes in six union councils of Karachi and demanded action against the District Returning Officers (DRO) and Returning Officers (RO) involved.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has emerged as the single largest party with 91 seats in local body elections held on January 15 in Karachi. Jamaat-e-Islami was the second largest party with 88 seats, followed by PTI with 40 seats. .
PML-N won seven UCs, JUIF three, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) independent candidates and others won two UCs each.
Jamaat-e-Islami condemned post poll rigging.
Apart from this, Jamaat-e-Islami leader Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman in a press conference in Karachi accused the People’s Party of post-poll rigging and demanded to stop the recount process in all the disputed UCs.
The JI leader claimed that the Sindh government had influenced the election staff to tamper with the results in favor of the People’s Party. He urged the PTI not to file recount petitions, claiming that the PPP would use it for its own benefit and steal the Karachi mandate.
“Ballot boxes of all objectionable UCs should be sent to ECP office and recounted in presence of ECP officials,” said Hafiz Naeem.
He added that the local government (LG) elections were postponed four times, and people were deliberately kept in confusion so that a large number of people would not vote.
He added that despite his reservations over delimitations, he tried to hold LG elections in the city. However, there were delays during the elections, Form 11 and Form 12 were not provided in time after the counting was over, and the results of the returning officers differed from the results of Form 11 and Form 12 in many constituencies, he added.
He added that his workers were attacked and fired at but they will continue to protect the public mandate. The JI leader accused the presiding officers of double stamping the JI votes so that the ballots were rejected.
He said that the People’s Party should respect the strong mandate of JI from the people of Karachi, adding that the next mayor of Karachi will be from Jamaat-e-Islami.
The head of JI Karachi announced a day of thanksgiving yesterday at MA Jinnah Road for the successful campaign of local body elections.
CM Shah assured to address ‘valid’ concerns
A day earlier, in a telephonic conversation with the JI leader, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had assured the party of addressing its “valid” concerns.
The Chief Minister urged them to approach the ECP regarding their concerns and assured him of an impartial role in resolving their issues.
Conflict over results
As soon as the results of the LG elections came out, several people were injured as a result of clashes between political parties.
According to JEE News, districts of Kemari, Malir Halt, Gulshan Hadid and Qayyum Baba became battlegrounds as political activists gathered to watch the recount.
The PTI staged a protest outside the DRO office in the site area of Kemari district in which PPP workers were also present. The supporters of the two rival parties shouted slogans against each other.
Two journalists were injured in stone pelting by activists of both political groups.
A person was injured by stone pelting outside the DRO office in Kemari district, the police also resorted to lathi charge. Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami workers protested in Malir Halt and Gulshan Hadid.
