KARACHI, Aug 30: The Pakistan People’s Party on Tuesday called off the protest rallies it had planned to organize against the “blatant acts of rigging and abuse of power by the state” during the local body polls.
The decision was taken on the directives of the ARD chief Makhdoom Amin Fahim, according to the media cell at Bilawal House.
The move would enable the ARD’s top brass to hammer out a nation-wide strategy in a meeting in Islamabad on Sept 3, it said.
According to Bilawal House spokesman Ejaz Durrani, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who is also senior vice chairman of the PPP, has said that besides the meeting of the ARD’s top brass, an all-party conference on Sept 4 would also deliberate on the issue to work out a common strategy on national basis. Therefore, he suggested that the Sindh level protest be postponed.
Two other party leaders, Syed Khurshid Shah and MNA Naveed Qamar, had also sought postponement because of their commitments in the National Assembly.
It may be pointed out that in Monday’s meeting in Lahore, the alliance had endorsed the Aug 27 decision of the PPP, Sindh chapter, which said that from Aug 31 it would launch a series of protest rallies in the divisional headquarters.
Besides Karachi, protest rallies were also planned on Sept 1 in Sukkur, on Sept 2 in Larkana, Mirpurkhas on Sept 3 and Hyderabad on Sept 4. The decision was taken after intense debate in the party which had also demanded re-polling in the province owing to alleged rigging and abuse of state power against the PPP and other opposition parties.
The PPP spokesman alleged that the ruling party had directed police officials and contractors to “deliver” at least five elected councillors before the third phase of the poll, otherwise they would lose their jobs and contracts.
He called it the worst kind of rigging in which the government ensured that PPP-backed candidates lost in its strongholds. He said that recovery of stamped ballot papers from many constituencies across the province was a testimony of such manipulations. He took exception to the CEC’s remarks on the killings and said that such a statement was contrary to the facts and only demonstrated his alleged partisan approach.
The last-minute postponement has generated misgivings among PPP workers, who according to the president and secretary general of the party’s Karachi chapter, were fully prepared to vent their feelings. Some elements were not happy over the postponement because they felt that it would only strengthen the hands of the ruling coalition.
Meanwhile, there appeared to be some confusion in the opposition camp because while the ARD Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim had called for postponement of the Sindh PPP’s protest rallies, the alliance’s provincial chief Zain Ansari said in a statement that a “black day” would be observed on Aug 31. When contacted by Dawn Mr Ansari said he was not aware of Makhdoom Amin Fahim’s directives to the PPP.
But he said that like the ARD decision on the rallies his statement also should be withdrawn. Mr Ansari criticized the government for resorting to rigging and using brute force during elections and then kidnapping elected representatives in the post-election phase.
