NAWABSHAH, Feb 10: The Nawabshah chapter of the Pakistan People’s Party on Sunday demanded that Election Commission of Pakistan should hold elections under the supervision of army in the wake of growing incidents of violence against PPP workers in many places.

PPP candidates for national and provincial assembly seats said at a press conference at the press club that some elements were bent upon disrupting peaceful atmosphere in the district, which had always remained peaceful and tolerant.

On Feb 8, the president of the Nawabshah chapter of Pakistan Muslim League Khan Mohammed Dahiri, a candidate for NA-214, Abdul Hafeez Unnar, candidate for PS-27 and Imdad Rahu along with their henchmen allegedly attacked PPP workers when they were playing volleyball in Ghulam Shah Leghari village, killing a man and injuring three others.

They said that they had complained to caretaker home minister Brigadier (Rtd) Akhtar Zamin when he recently visited Nawabshah about the excesses.

They demanded that the Election Commission should take notice of atrocities against PPP workers, direct police to withdraw protocol from PML-Q candidates and deploy army in Nawabshah during elections to maintain peace.

The PPP candidates include Dr Azra Fazal, sister of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah, Tariq Masood Arain, Syed Fasih Shah, Ahmed Ali Khan Jalbani and acting district president Ghulam Qadir Chandio.

Our Tharparkar correspondent adds: The People’s Party leader and candidate for PS-60 seat Tharparkar, Engineer Wali Mohammad Rahimoon, who is confronting former Sindh chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim has demanded deployment of army in the constituency for three days, from 16th to 18th February, to ensure peaceful and fair elections.

He said this was necessary as the local administration was under the influence of the Arbabs.

Addressing a news conference at the press club on Sunday he said since 1930s, the Arbabs had won elections from this constituency but this time the former Sindh chief minister was facing a serious challenge as all the communities of this constituency had announced their open support for the PPP.

He claimed that Arbab Ghulam Rahim has been completely isolated and was using the weapon of harassment to win the elections as the entire government machinery was under his control. He said the Arbabs had held the poor people hostage for too long but now they had rebelled.

He said that there were more than 100,000 voters in the constituency out of whom there were 20,000 Nohrios; 25,000 Rahimoons; 25,000 Meghwars; 25,000 Lunds and Bajeers and 25,000 mixed population of Thakurs, Bheels, Junejos and Langhas etc.