KARACHI: After losing PS-127 seat to Pakistan Peoples Party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has challenged the by-election results in the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Saturday.

Muttahida candidate Waseem Ahmed filed the plea after the party rejected the results, alleging rigging on the rival parties and also accused the law-enforcement agencies of failing to protect its workers and activists from the opponents.

Mr Ahmed through his counsel Rao Sharif submitted that the ruling party used government machinery to rig the election. He expressed concerns on the results of several polling stations and said the Muttahida was ahead with a lead of over 9,000 votes as per form 14 of 52 polling stations. But they were not provided with the result of remaining polling stations, he alleged.

The PS-127 by-polls were held on Sept 8 after the seat had fallen vacant when Muttahida member Ashfaq Mangi had resigned and joined Mustafa Kamal-led Pak Sarzameen Party.

PPP candidate Ghulam Murtaza Baloch won the by-election on PS-127 with comfortable margin against the closest rival, Mr Ahmed.

According to the results announced by 134 polling stations compiled by the parties, Mr Baloch obtained 21,671 votes against Mr Ahmed’s 15,670 votes. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Nadeem Memon secured around 6,000 votes.

In immediate reaction to the election results, the MQM rejected them while blaming rival parties for attacking and torturing its workers who were actively involved in election-related activities.

Addressing a press conference soon after the announcement of the results, Muttahida leader Dr Farooq Sattar accused the returning officer of hiding himself from the party candidate, overlooking the fact that it was his responsibility to keep in touch with all the contestants. “We have not received results from 52 of the 134 polling stations within the constituency, raising fears that some serious irregularity has occurred in the said polling stations. We would move to the court and challenge the results,” he said.

In its belated reaction to the allegations, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, however, rejected the notions of irregularities and said the by-polls were free and fair. The by-election was held in a secured environment provided by the law-enforcement agencies.

“The by-election was all fair and free,” he replied to a query after participating in a friendly T20 cricket match between Edhi Whites and Edhi Green organised to pay tribute to the late philanthropist and social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi.

“This election was different in a sense that this time rigging was not allowed. It was all done due to better security arrangements provided by our law-enforcement agencies. The MQM in past managed to grab even 90,000 votes from the constituency but this time we didn’t allow rigging at any place of the constituency,” said the chief minister.

Published in Dawn September 11th, 2016