ECP takes notice of clash, ‘irregularities’ in LG polls result
As recounting of votes continues in the port city following Sunday’s local government elections across Sindh, clashes in multiple areas across the metropolis erupted between political parties, leaving several people injured.
Hostile areas include Keamari, Malir Halt, Gulshan-e-Hadeed, and Qayyumabad.
Workers of the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf clashed outside the office of the Keamari deputy returning officer following the controversial results of the Sindh local government elections.
The PTI staged a protest against the results outside the Keamari DRO’s office. Party’s bigwigs Khurram Sher Zaman and Syed Ali Zaidi led the protest. Police contingents tried to take control of the situation. Reports said the workers pelted each other with stones resulting in injuries of police personnel and four journalists covering the incident. The agitators also broke the windowpanes of the DRO’s office. PTI MNA Syed Ali Zaidi said he was also injured in the clash.
Zaman said the result was tampered with. “We are demanding the DRO and the DC to notify the results as per the form-11, but they are not responding as they are being pressurised by the provincial government,” he claimed. The administration must, he said, pay heed to our complaints.
Zaidi said the results were being changed inside the DRO s office. “The PPP’s goons came in the presence of the police and started pelting us with stones which left me injured,” he added.
Meanwhile, Election Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday took notice of the “irregularities” in the result of local government elections in Sindh’s six union councils as well as the clash between workers of the PPP and the PTI.
The Jamat-e-Islami had moved the ECP against the “irregularities” in the results. The ECP while taking it into notice, summoned the JI on Jan 23.
Meanwhile Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah made a telephonic contact with Karachi Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Hafiz Naeemur Rahman on Wednesday and assured Rahman that their reservations and problems would be resolved. “We will contact the ECP for the resolution of the problems pertaining to the election,” he added.
He said that the JI should contact the ECP for the resolution of the problems pertaining to the election. “The Sindh government will play an impartial role in the matter regarding it,” he added.
Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said that the mandate of the Jamaat-e-Islami should be accepted. “All the 94 seats won according to the Form 11 should be given to the Jamaat-e-Islami,” he added.
Sindh Minister for Education Saeed Ghani on Wednesday said that Jamat-e-Islami is on Pakistan People’s Party’s priority for talks over forming an alliance to appoint Karachi’s mayor.
