KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi on Tuesday accused the ruling PPP of undermining the local government system, saying that it will not tolerate the post-poll rigging in the guise of ballot recounting.
“Pakistan People Party is once again mulling to ditch the local government setup,” JI Karachi chief, Engr Hafiz Naeemur Rehman told a press conference at Idara Noor-e-Haq.
The JI will not allow this conspiracy to succeed; he said and vowed to safeguard his party’s political mandate, which public showed in the form of votes in its favor during the recent local government polls. He warned that his party will not tolerate the rigging of elections in the name of recounting. He said that he will expose all elements involved in the post-poll rigging, he added.
“The PPP and Election Commission have been taking the JI’s union councils in a naked fraudulent manner as the recounting was carried out despite broken seals and torn bags,” he alleged.
He welcomed the Islamabad High Court’s decision to issue a stay order against the recounting in Karachi, saying that the JI will continue to defend its mandate on all available forums.
He linked the JI overwhelming majority the local bodies’ elections to the people’s trust and hoped that his party will leave no stone unturned to meet the public expectations. “The JI has accepted the actual mandate of the PPP in Karachi with open hearts and duly expects the same from the PPP,” Naeemur Rehman said.
He demanded of the ECP to hold the elections in 11 UCs as per scheduled for example April 18, saying that his party will participate in the polls. He alleged the PPP of running away from the remaining local government polls in 11 UCs. “The commission has been playing the role of a facilitator and made itself a B-team of the ruling PPP,” he alleged.
He showed displeasure over the ECP’s move of recounting the ballot papers, saying that the commission has failed to rectify the polls results in line with the form 11 and form 12.
He also called the returning officers “biased”, who alleged of helping the rigging take place in favor of the PPP.
The JI had also requested to the ECP to rectify the results in the UCs on the basis of form 11 and 12 issued to candidates after polling. The ballot boxes were unsealed for tampering the votes, despite the JI requests to the ECP to take all the election materials into its protective custody, he said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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