The Pakistan People’s Party has demanded that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should readily declare withheld results of the local government elections in certain union committees of Karachi as the withholding of the poll outcome violates the constitution and relevant laws.
Speaking at a press conference here at the Sindh Assembly building on Friday, Sindh Labour and Human Resources Minister, Saeed Ghani, said that no written order had been issued by the ECP to withhold poll results in six union committees of Karachi as the same had been done on the verbal instructions.Ghani, who is also the PPP Karachi chapter President, said that verbal instructions to withhold election results in Karachi didn’t carry any legal value.
He told the media persons that the returning officers hadn’t listened to the concerned successful candidates in the UCs in question before withholding their results.He said that as per the constitution, election laws, and Sindh Local Government Act-2013 only the affected candidate could file an application to challenge the preliminary results of the polls. He said that in the instance of these six UCs the results of the polls in the six UCs had been withheld following the filing of an application by a Naib Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami who was not a candidate in the polls.
Ghani told the journalists that election tribunals should have been approached by the concerned candidates to challenge the poll result in any UC of Karachi instead of directly sending an application to the ECP for the purpose. He said that in the case of these six UCs, none of their contesting candidates had filed any application to challenge the election result.He said that withholding of the poll results after receiving an application from an office-bearer of a political party didn’t confirm with the election laws, provincial local government law, and constitution.
Ghani said that they had to come to know through media that election results in another three UCs of Karachi had been withheld where after recounting of votes the JI’s candidates had lost the polls. He said that withholding of the poll results in these three UCs was also without any lawful basis.
“The Election Commission has been working very well as it shouldn’t be rendered controversial after coming under the pressure of Jamaat-e-Islami,” said Ghani.He said it seemed to him that an attempt was being to unduly render controversial the election in Karachi that had been quite fairly conducted after succumbing to pressure from a political party.Ghani urged the ECP to reach any decision about poll results after listening to both parties to the election dispute.
“The Election Commission should immediately declare poll results in Karachi which have been illegally withheld as the concerned candidates should approach the election tribunal to file a complaint about the elections,” he said.The Sindh Labour Minister, however, clarified that he was not levelling any allegations against the ECP as his demand was in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws.
