LARKANA: Pakistan Peoples Party leaders MNA Faryal Talpur, Home Minister Suhail Anwar Siyal and several other lawmakers led several rallies taken out in various areas of Larkana district on Monday to celebrate the party’s victory in the first phase of the local government election amid continued protest by the opposition parties over what they described as massive rigging.

A large number of jubilant party workers and supporters took part in the rally led by Ms Talpur, the sister of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari. It set off from Naudero to reach Garhi Khuda Bukhsh Bhutto, where Ms Talpur accompanied by MNA Ramesh Lal and MPAs Khursheed Junejo and Mohammed Ali Bhutto laid wreaths at the graves of the Bhuttos.

In her brief talk to party workers, Ms Talpur appreciated the performance of PPP candidates in the election and hoped that they would serve the masses selflessly in line with the party’s motto.

Mr Siyal, along with other PPP leaders and PPP candidates for LG seats, led another big rally taken out from Otha Chowk in Larkana. The participants joined the Naudero rally in Garhi Khuda Bukhsh Bhutto.

The anti-PPP electoral alliance, the Larkana Awami Ittehad (LAI), on the other hand rejected the LG election [unofficial] results saying that it was massively rigged.

Addressing a press conference in the Waleed area of Larkana on Monday after reviewing the election process and the post-poll situation, LAI convener Haji Munawwar Ali Abbasi, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Amir Bakhsh Bhutto, Pakistan Peoples Party-Workers (PPP-W) chief Dr Safdar Abbasi and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) leader Syed Akbar Shah Rashdi strongly condemned the killing of 11 people, mostly PML-F men, in a single incident in Khairpur during the polling.

“The election was not at all free and fair,” they said, and alleged that police and polling staff helped the PPP rig the election.

“Polling stations were shifted at the last minute, voters lists were not correct, police force was used on a big scale in favour of the PPP, which also distributed money among voters to ensure its victory,” they claimed while explaining how the election were rigged.

“We will take legal action to prove the claims,” Munawwar Abbasi said, adding: “We have undeniable evidence to substantiate them.”

Amir Bhutto said the PPP had the only option of rigging to win. “DSP Aslam Langah was tasked with stamping ballot papers and stuffing ballot boxes, a policeman in Banguldero was found influencing the polling and a presiding officer was seen wearing shirt with the PPP flag printed on it,” he alleged.

Mr Bhutto said the LAI would be kept intact to raise public issues.

Akbar Rashdi said that unarmed followers of Pir Pagara were targeted and killed in Daraza Sharif, Khairpur, on polling day. He criticised the chief minister’s remarks that the victims hailed from Sanghar. “The guards of Pir sahib were [among those] killed and we vehemently condemn it,” he said.

He also alleged that stamped ballot papers were thrown away by a presiding officer.

Dr Safdar Abbasi said no action had been taken by the authorities concerned over widespread complaints of pre-poll rigging while poor arrangements for the polling confused voters. The ECP had turned a deaf ear towards complaints of violations of the code of conduct by PPP lawmakers, he said, adding that the ECP also did not heed our call for the deployment of army at polling stations to check rigging and ensure security.

Qurban Abbasi, the former mayor of Larkana who lost in the UC-20 election, alleged that three DSPs and an SHO were assigned the task of buy voters for the PPP in his constituency.

PML-N, PTI and JI also contest victory

SUKKUR: Leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and organisations of a number of communities have accused the Pakistan Peoples Party of having committed large-scale and pre-planned rigging with the help of government machinery in the first phase of local government election.

PML-N district president Mohammad Akram Abro, JI leader Deedar Lashari, PTI’s Tariq Unnar and president of Jamot Qaumi Movement Nasir Thaheem and others said at a joint press conference at the Jacobabad press club on Monday that it was clear by the way rigging was committed that the ruling party had planned everything in advance to ensure win of its candidates.

They alleged that PPP leader Sardar Zulfiqar Sarki and DSP of Thull stuffed fake votes in the ballot boxes in polling stations in Thull, compelling the PML-N candidate to boycott the polling process.

They believed rigging had been committed under a planning and claimed a bill of 300 blank ballot papers each was given to candidates of the PPP who had them stuffed in ballot boxes through their workers.

They accused in-charge of the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) of having issued fake identity cards of women in connivance with PPP and having their votes cast well before the polling started. When the genuine voters arrived at polling stations they were told their votes had already been cast, they said.

They claimed that at least 8,000 votes were cast through fake NICs with the help of Nadra in-charge who had also held a public meeting in favour of the PPP. They had his photographs which they would send to the chairman of Nadra, they said.

They said that PPP MNA Mir Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani, provincial minister Mumtaz Jakhrani and district returning officer had planned everything in advance to defeat the PML-N candidate. They would go to court along with the huge evidence of rigging they had gathered, they said.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2015

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