ISLAMABAD, July 26: Members of the Election Monitoring Committee of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) on Tuesday met acting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar and apprised him about the “pre-poll rigging being carried out by the rulers for the forthcoming local government elections.”

Speaking at a news conference after the meeting, chairman of the PPP election committee Senator Sardar Latif Khosa and members of the committee Senator Enver Baig, Nazir Dhoki and Palwasha Behram said it seemed that the CEC was powerless in taking action against the rulers.

The PPP leaders said they had presented a report of the details of violations of the EC rules committed by the ruling party and the government officials with the hope that the CEC would take notice of it to make the election process transparent. The PPP leaders said they had apprised the CEC about the acts of the Sindh government in violation of the election rules and code of conduct.

“We told the CEC that Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim had openly violated the CEC directives as according to press reports, the Sindh chief minister had made 317 transfers and postings purely on political basis in the province despite a ban,” they said.

The PPP leaders said they had told the CEC that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and the chief minister were openly running the election campaign of the ruling party candidates.

Senator Latif Khosa said the Awam Dost candidates were actually contesting elections against the president, the prime minister and other government functionaries. He said according to the press reports, the Sindh chief minister had attended 11 public meetings in connection with the election campaign.

The PPP leaders also informed the CEC about the alleged victimization of the opponents by the Sindh government. They said even the candidates of the Awam Dost Group were being implicated in false cases. He said the candidates and party workers had been kidnapped in Umerkot, Ghotki, Karachi, Sukkur, Dadu and Jamshoro.

The PPP leaders said recently the prime minister announced Rs1 billion grant for uplift projects in Hyderabad in a public meeting which was also attended by the government-backed candidates. Similarly, they said, Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi had also announced several uplift schemes in public meetings.

Senator Khosa said the CEC had asked them to provide more documentary proofs in support of their allegations and assured them that he would take necessary action in accordance with the laws. PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar was also present in the meeting with the CEC, which lasted for about two hours.

Meanwhile, talking to reporters after his meeting with the PPP delegation, Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar said the PPP members had presented various newspaper clippings and that he had asked the PPP to give proofs of the registered FIRs and complaints made with the EC officials.

In response to a question, Justice Dogar said the EC had taken notice of the reports that in Dir and some other areas, women were being stopped from participating in the LB polls. He said the EC would take all necessary steps in this regard.

Interestingly, Justice Dogar said he had not met the PPP leaders, but individuals as the elections were being held on non-party basis.