KARACHI, Aug 4: Pakistan People’s Party on Thursday demanded immediate steps to remove alleged discrepancies in electoral lists. It also demanded setting up of an inquiry committee, headed by Human Rights Commission, to probe the “pre-poll rigging” charges.
Secretary General of the PPP Sindh chapter, Nafees Siddiqui, in a letter to the CEC, drew his attention to the discrepancies and contradictory interpretations of the electoral lists for local bodies elections.
He pointed out that there was only one list in 2001 which was prepared for local bodies elections. This list was prepared on the basis of separate electorate and voters’ age limit was then 21 years.
He claimed that the list was not correctly prepared and most of the pages were hand-written and the list was not complete as it was prepared in a hurry for 2001 elections.
Mr Siddiqui maintained that the second list was prepared by NADRA in 2002 for the general elections of the country. This voters list was prepared on joint electorate basis and included voters’ up to 18 years at that time i.e. 2002. As after 17th Amendment, joint electorate and voters list of 18 years had become the part of the Constitution.
Now the confusion was that most of the returning officers for Sindh were having different lists. Some had 2001 list with additional handwritten entries while the others had the list of 2002. It was the sole discretion of the returning officers to use any list of their choice.
It was, therefore, requested that if electoral list of 2002 would not be accepted, the whole election of Local Bodies would become void because it would tantamount to disfranchising the voters who attained the age of 18 in 2002 and which would affect a good percentage of the voters.
Mr Siddiqui claimed that by not accepting 2002 list the CEC was going against the intention and wisdom of legislators who based the joint electorate system as well as the age of 18. It also amount to violation of the Constitution.
The PPP provincial secretary general said that under the circumstances, it was requested that a directive may be issued to the returning officers immediately to accept both lists of 2001 or 2002 as valid voters’ lists for the forthcoming local bodies elections.
Meanwhile, leader of the opposition in Senate Raza Rabbani and head of the PPP election monitoring committee, Taj Haider while demanding formation an inquiry committee, headed by officials of HRCP, asked the CEC to let the “independent people hold probe as mechanism at the Election Commission has failed to scrutinize the crystal transparent rigging.
“The inquiries by DROs, DCOs, and DPOs are simply not working nor the cosmetic steps are going to jack up the image of the Election Commission,” the PPP leaders said in a statement issued from Bilawal House.
They alleged that the Chief Election Commissioner had failed to implement his ‘orders’, issued not only once but thrice, to cancel the transfers of even head constables as evident in case of Badin DPO where four HCs and cops were transferred a month back and their transfer orders had not been reversed on EC’s orders even after a month.
“How could an Election Commission ensure free and fair elections, which cannot not reverse transfers of such a lower rank police officers done in violation of his directives,” they posed a question.
The PPP leaders pointed out that Chief Minister Arbab Rahim was visiting Nawabshah, Larkana and other districts and was hurling threats at opponents to keep away from elections.
He even suspended the Health and Food Department officials in Nawabshah for being related to Awam Dost candidates.
The TPO Nawabshah was conducting raids on the houses of opponents and Awam Dost candidates were being asked to withdraw or face police action and false cases.
They pointed out that hundreds of Awam Dost candidates had been kidnapped or arrested by the kidnapping squads of the regime but the Election Commission had turned a blind eye to these incidents .
They said in Karachi, Awam Dost Councillors Abdul Hayee Baloch, Ratan Kumar and others were threatened and their homes were fired upon. An SI of Mobina Town police raided the house of Mr. Baloch in the wee hours of Thursday and asked his mother for his withdrawal from elections.
In Badin, the Awam Dost Nazim candidate of UC Khairpur Gambo was kidnapped while in Tando Bago a proposer of Awam Dost candidate was fixed in a fish theft case.
