KARACHI, Oct 17: The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) has accused the authorities of “getting favoured candidates of religious parties elected through “pre-poll and post-poll rigging which has spread the feeling of insecurity among the minority communities.”

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday the Sindh APMA chief and a former MPA Saleem Khursheed Khokhar claimed the minorities who already were feeling unsafe, were feeling more insecure owing to the manipulated victory of the religious party members in the elections.

“Though the minorities, particularly the Christians, have been victimized by the police and other government agencies and religious extremists, they voted for the liberal party, the Pakistan People’s Party, he said.

He accused that “the election results were changed and candidates declared successful during the night were declared defeated in the morning.”

He said three APMA candidates (one from Sindh and two from the Punjab) had contested on general seats for provincial assemblies, but none of them could win. Eleven others are also contesting on the reserved seats.

They said APMA was collecting facts regarding elections from all over the country so that a comprehensive report, white paper, could be published, “to prove how the government has manipulated to limit and minimize the victory of democratic political parties like PPP, PML (N), MQM and ANP and enhance the number of successful members of the religious parties.”

They also expressed concern over the on-going negotiations between the PPP and the religious parties and said that the central APMA leadership would approach the PPP leaders and appraise them of their concerns.

“The murderers of victims of the terrorist acts be arrested and innocent Christians who have been arrested in the Rimpa Plaza incident case be released. The fabricated cases filed against a former Sindh MPA Michael Javed and other Christians be withdrawn,” they demanded.

They demanded that security be provided to the churches and other organizations being run by the Christians and their life and properties be protected.