SUKKUR: Activists of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in the Bunder Road area of the city attacked each other with clubs and bricks as soon as the electioneering for the local government poll drew to an end at midnight Thursday.

An unspecified number of activists were rounded up following the clash which left several people injured.

Police said five MQM activists were arrested but the party put the number at over 40.

Two PPP workers, Arsalan Malik and Sufyan Malik, were admitted to the Sukkur Civil Hospital for treatment. Local PPP leaders claimed that some other injured activists were discharged after being provided treatment.

Muttahida MPAs Saleem Bandhani and Dewan Chand Chawla told a press conference that their party colleagues were also injured in the clash and received first aid at the hospital. They claimed that B-Section police rounded up more than 40 MQM activists in raids at different places.

They accused the PPP of using state machinery against its opponents. “The PPP after sensing its clear defeat in the LG election has resorted to attacking and victimising MQM workers and using the state machinery against them.”

They demanded immediate release of all detained workers and withdrawal of “fake” FIRs registered against some of them.

SUKKUR: Commenting on the clash, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and senior PPP leader Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah rejected the allegation of the use of state machinery by his party. On the contrary, PPP workers were being attacked by its rivals in the election.

Speaking to the media at his residence here on Friday, Mr Shah said that in fact, the PPP corner meeting in UC-4 was attacked by opponents in the LG election. “Our workers were injured in the attack but we exercised restraint and did not go for lodging a case against the attackers,” he said, and argued that the PPP did not want to create tension ahead of the polling. “We want the polling to be held in a peaceful atmosphere and transparent manner,” he said.

Mr Shah said: “Soon after the incident, we advised our workers not to retaliate because this could spoil the otherwise peaceful election process.”

The PPP leader also shrugged off the claim that his party’s graph was coming down, and argued that whatever the position, the PPP remained the largest single political party of the country. He said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz fielded its candidates on 70 per cent seats in Punjab for the ongoing LG election but the PPP fielded its candidates on all seats.

“Our party is the most popular one because we raise public issues and made constant efforts to get them resolved even when we are in the opposition,” he said. He said PPP has roots in the poor and drown-trodden segment which constituted 98 per cent of the country’s population.

“We always worked for the labour class and peasant,” he said, and criticised the PML-N government for ignoring them. The federal government was taking such decisions which adversely affected peasants and that’s why the PPP was strongly opposing its policies, he said.

Doubts cast over poll credibility

LARKANA: The leaders of Pakistan Peoples Party-Workers and Larkana Awami Ittehad said on Friday that Sindh government’s failure to issue security plan ahead of local government election cast doubts on claims of transparency in polls.

LAI convener Haji Munawwar Ali Abbasi and PPP-W head Dr Sadfar Abbasi said at a press conference at the press club that in utter violation of the code of conduct, Sindh chief minister, PPP MNA Ms Faryal Talpur, speaker of Sindh Assembly, education minister and home minister were influencing election campaign.

They said that they had been complaining to the ECP about the violations and were still conveying similar complaints but in vain.

About Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s Friday visit of Larkana and Naudero towards the end of election campaign, they said the perseverance of LAI candidates had forced PPP to bring in Bilawal as a last resort to swing voters.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2015

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