KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi on Monday boycotted the city mayor’s oath taking ceremony in protest against “rigging” local government elections.
“A joint interrogation team should be formed about the ‘missing’ UCs chairmen of the PTI,” JI Karachi Chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman demanded at a press conference at Idara Noor-e-Haq.
He appealed to the judiciary to form a joint Interrogation team to ascertain the truth behind ‘31 missing UCs chairmen’ of the PTI.
The local government elections in Karachi have exposed the PPP, the Sindh government and Election Commission of Pakistan, he said and dubbed the mayor’s election “fraud and deception”.
The “fake” election has wiped out the electoral and political mandate of 35 million people of Karachi, he alleged and asserted that the “rigged and unfair” election should not be tolerated and notified.
He claimed that the JI has won over 100 UCs, which makes up over 160 seats for his party in the city council including the reserved ones. “The ECP gave 14 UCs to the PPP despite ‘Form 11’ showed its defeat,” he alleged.
Several incidents, he pointed out, have been reported on Jan 15 showing the PPP with the help of armed goons, police and other state organs “rigged” the polling process in scores of UCs.
“The returning officers, which the PPP’s Sindh government had provided, played a nefarious role,” Hafiz Naeem said and also blamed the ECP for its involvement in the “rigging”.
Despite all the riggings, the JI managed to emerge as the single largest party with the highest numbers of votes and a majority of constituencies, he claimed.
He announced that the JI is holding a protest demonstration outside the ECP office in Islamabad on Friday, June 23, saying the commission has “entirely failed” to hold the free and fair elections in Karachi.
He hoped that the court will declare the mayor election “null and wide” as the JI has challenged an amendment to the law, which permits the direct contest for a non-elected individual.
The JI opposes feudalism and undemocratic mindset, he said adding that his party is not against ‘Sindhis’. The JI has given huge sacrifices to uproot ethnic discrimination, he said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023