KARACHI, Jan 17: In two separate letters sent to the acting chief minister of Sindh and the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan, provincial chief of the Pakistan People’s Party Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said the registration of FIRs and arrest of PPP workers on a mass scale amounted to pre-poll rigging on the part of the PML-Q, PML-F, MQM and the NPP.
He termed these acts abuse of human rights of political workers and a violation of the constitutional right to contest elections.
Mr Shah also referred to his telephone conversation with the caretaker chief minister of Sindh who, according to him, had given him an assurance that all the registered cases would be withdrawn and PPP workers released.
In his letter to the acting CM, dated Jan 14 and released to the media on Thursday, Mr Shah pointed out that during the past two weeks more than 2,500 cases had been registered across Sindh.
He claimed that more than half a million people had been involved and of them about 14,000 had been nominated. They include PPP workers, office-bearers and even candidates in the upcoming general election.
Condemning those cases, Syed Qaim Ali Shah said that most of the cases had been filed by known workers of PML-Q, PML-F, MQM and NPP, who had filed the FIRs through police.
Listing names of some of the candidates, besides Awam Dost nazims and office-bearers of district bar associations, nominated in the FIRs, Syed Qaim Ali Shah pointed out that those cases had been registered under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorist Act , which was a non-bailable offence.
Mr Shah claimed that even dead workers of the PPP had been nominated in the FIRs. In this context, he cited a case registered in Taluka Moro.
He also alleged that police had been raiding homes of party activists and candidates. Mr Shah made it clear to the Sindh chief minister that PPP workers were in mourning over the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and the people who damaged property in the aftermath of her assassination were, in the words of the government, criminal elements.
He apprehended that PPP workers, polling agents, and even voters would be implicated in cases for being among those unknown workers whose figures stood at around 500,000.
He also condemned the alleged hate campaign launched by the PML-Q in the press with the aim of maligning the PPP and widening ethnic divisions.
He asked the caretaker chief minister to direct the authorities to immediately stop such acts.
In his two letters, Mr Shah has alleged that the PML-Q under former sindh chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim and former federal minister for water and power Liaquat Jatoi were responsible for the situation.
He urged the chief election commissioner to direct the Sindh administration to withdraw all fabricated cases.
Mr Shah has also sent copies of the letter to the chief justice of Pakistan and the CJ of the Sindh High Court.
Transfers & postings
A Pakistan People’s Party leader from Ghotki, Jam Saifullah Dharejo, on Thursday criticized the government for officials’ transfers and postings in contravention of Election Commission directives, and ‘victimisation’ of PPP workers and supporters.
Speaking at a news conference at the Karachi Press Club, Mr Dharejo also handed out copies of two letters of the Election Commission of Pakistan, dated Jan 12, in response to his complaints about transfers and postings.
In one of the letters, the CEC has taken serious notice of the large-scale postings and transfers of police officers in Sindh after the release of the election schedule on Nov 20, despite a ban imposed on transfers by the ECP.
In the letter to the inspector-general of Sindh, the chief election commissioner had declared that the transfer of Mazhar Abbas Sheikh, Sukkur DPO, should be cancelled forthwith. In the letter to the IG, the CEC acting on complaints of Sardar Ahmad Khan alias Fayaz Ali Khan Lund and Jam Ikramullah Khan Dharejo, regarding the partisan role of Munir Ahmad Phulpoto, TPO of Ghotki, Abdul Majeed Arain, SHO of Adalpur, Athar Mahar, an ASI in the Ghotki police station, and Qasim Dhando, an ASI in the Qadarpur police station, had called for action against them in accordance with the law.
Mr Dharejo also castigated the government for implicating PPP workers and candidates in the violence that erupted following the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.
Drawing his attention to such violations in PS-6 Ghotki, Mr Dharejo accused the Mahar group of implicating him and thousands of others in cases instituted on trumped-up charges.
While Mr Dharejo was speaking at a news conference, PPP candidates and activists from Tharparker were on hunger strike outside the Karachi Press Club to protest against government excesses, allegedly to rig the elections.
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.