KARACHI: The Jamaat-i-Islami on Saturday staged a sit-in outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in protest against ‘failure’ of the constitutional body to announce the schedule for polling in 11 remaining union committees of Karachi and complete the local bodies’ electoral process in order to reinstate a local government in the metropolis.

The party also warned that “something new is being cooked” by the Sindh government of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) and its ally in the Centre, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), to “snatch the true mandate of Karachiites” in the name of dialogue and ‘new partnership’.

Addressing the sit-in, JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman said that after failure of all tactics by the Sindh government to delay the local bodies elections, the polling was held in January, but now the PPP had revived its efforts to stop the process of its completion.

“It’s an open secret that the PPP never wanted local government elections in Karachi,” he said. “For this it was openly supported and backed by the MQM-P. But the people of Karachi through their struggle and resistance forced them to surrender. The people of Karachi exposed them through social media and JI campaign. Now after facing the failure, the two parties are now planning new schemes to keep Karachiites deprived of their basic rights. Unfortunately the Election Commission, by not playing its constitutional role, is supporting their moves.”

He said that the local government elections were held on January 15 in the city, but the ECP could not announce till now the schedule for the polls in 11 union councils where the elections had been postponed because of demise of candidates.

The ECP, he added had announced the date for the ‘useless’ by-elections on the seats recently fell vacant after the government accepted resignations of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf lawmakers.

“We demand the ECP to decide the cases of six union councils by declaring them open-and-shut cases on the basis of form 11 and 12,” added Hafiz Naeem.

“We have accepted the mandate of the PPP, but the ruling party should also show some courage to accept the mandate of the Jamaat-i-Islami in Karachi. We have emerged as the largest party in the city in terms of both the popular vote and union councils.”

Hafiz Naeem also warned the ECP of the train march to Islamabad and a massive sit-in outside the ECP head office, if the commission failed to discharge its constitutional obligations.

In his response to reported comments of some ECP members, he asked them to fulfill their duties if they wanted the JI to avoid agitation.

“What is the fault of Karachi? Why didn’t the ECP announce results of the local government polls even after passage of 26 days to the elections,” he asked while addressing to the commission.

He said that the JI voices the inspirations of Karachiites and represents all segments of the society. He said that the JI will take care of the entire city by taking all political and social quarters onboard.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2023