• PTI delegation meets ECP bosses
• TLP workers hold protest outside ECP offices
• JI, PPP discuss strategy to name own mayor

KARACHI: About a week after the local government elections in Karachi and Hyderabad, tainted by a delayed announcement of results, several opposition parties escalated their protest on Friday as they called for the entire exercise to be declared “null and void”.

While putting the blame for the “rigging” on the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the party that governs Sindh, the protesting parties asked the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold the polls afresh.

The call for the fresh polls came from the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), which emerged as the third largest party in Karachi, and the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a day after the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) came up with the similar demand.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), which had boycotted the Jan 15 elections, on Friday reiterated its demand for the fresh polls, but only after new delimitation of constituencies in both the cities.

Unimpressed by the demand, the two leading parties in Karachi, PPP and Jamaat-i-Islami, were found busy discussing their future course of action as each party was exploring different options to win the coveted office of mayor.

A PTI delegation led by its Karachi president and member Sindh Assembly Bilal Ghaffar visited the ECP’s provincial headquarters and held a meeting with senior officials.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, the PTI leaders said they had shared “document-based evidence” of “post-poll rigging” with the ECP and sought its role against the “illegalities of the PPP”.

“But it’s so unfortunate that so far we haven’t found the ECP moving against any complaint,” the MPA regretted. “We tried our best to be cooperative and calm. But after witnessing so much rigging and violation of code of conduct under the ECP nose, we reject these elections. We demand the ECP declare them null and void and the fresh one be called.”

Mr Ghaffar mentioned dozens of union councils where the PTI candidates had contested and were declared defeated.

“But till today, we have not been given any document or formally informed about the results of those UCs. There are several other issues which we raised and shared evidence of pre- and post-poll rigging with the ECP. The ECP should play its role to prove itself a constitutional and impartial body,” said Mr Ghaffar.

Besides, a large number of TLP workers marched to the ECP building and staged a protest against the alleged rigging. The TLP leaders said that deputy commissioners and district returning officers and the government itself had directly interfered in the elections but no action was taken by the ECP despite repeated complaints.

“The Sindh government and the ECP can’t attack our mandate,” said Qasim Fakhri of the TLP while speaking at the protest. “The people and the city of Karachi have voted for us with great hopes. If this is the way to hold the elections, we reject this process and its results. We demand fresh elections with a consensual code of conduct agreed to by all contesting parties.”

The MQM-P, which boycotted the elections, dubbed the reservations of the contesting parties as “a win of the party’s narrative” against the “illegal and unjust local bodies elections in Karachi and Hyderabad.

Addressing a press conference at the party’s temporary headquarters in Bahadurabad, former Karachi mayor and senior MQM-P leader Wasim Akhtar raised questions over the performance of ECP which created doubts on the transparency of electoral process.

“Almost a week has passed, the ECP has failed to announce the final results of the Jan 15 polls,” he pointed out. “After the turnout as low as seven to eight per cent, the delay in the announcement of results has proved the doubts of our party true. Any party which now emerges as the leading contestant would not represent the true mandate of Karachi.”

Earlier on Thursday, the GDA — an umbrella of different political parties representing opposition — had rejected the results and demanded fresh polls across the province.

The unanimous demand from all these parties, however, has made little impact on those which have emerged as the leading parties, the PPP and JI. Both PPP and JI were seen busy discussing their strategy, which focuses on the possibility of striking alliance with other parties, to bring its mayor.

In one such important development, the JI, led by its Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rahman, is scheduled to meet the PTI leaders on Saturday (today). Earlier, the JI has held talks with the PPP on the same issue.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2023