LARKANA: Veteran politician and disgruntled Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Mumtaz Ali Bhutto has joined in the chorus of complaint against the Election Commission of Pakistan, demanding that its members tender resignation after successive decisions by election tribunals have cast doubts on fairness in the 2013 general election.

Mr Bhutto announced his support for the stand taken by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on the ECP on Thursday after a meeting with PTI’s central leader Dr Arif Alvi who called on him at his residence in Mirpur Bhutto on Wednesday night.

Mr Alvi told reporters he had delivered Imran Khan’s message to Mr Bhutto but did not divulge its details. “We have discussed upcoming local government (LG) election in Sindh and the recently launched Larkana Awami Ittehad (LAI). No invitation has been extended to Mr Bhutto to join the PTI”.

He said: “We are trying to muster support for the PTI’s demand for the resignation of the four members of the ECP and we are meeting with leadership of different political parties in this connection,” he said.

Mr Bhutto added his voice to Mr Alvi’s demand and asked ECP members to step down.

Mr Bhutto said that the PML-N continued reconciliation policy towards the PPP contrary to the spirit of his party’s ‘agreement’ with it. “If the PML-N has any reservations over the decisions made at the forum of Larkana Awami Ittehad, it may expel us from the party,” he said.

He said: “Despite the fact that the LG law is highly flawed we will field candidates on all seats”.

Mr Alvi said in categorical terms in response to a question that the PTI would not become part of any alliance or join any forum of which the Muttahida Qaumi Movement was also a member since the party was responsible for shattering peace in Karachi.

He praised the PML-N decision to contest by-election on all three seats that fell vacant in the wake of the election tribunal’s verdicts and called for holding LG polls under supervision of the army. He demanded the government extend Rangers’ authority to whole Sindh province.

The PTI leaders have met Mr Bhutto on several occasions to seek his support for the party’s stand. Shah Mehmood Qureshi, vice chairman of PTI, met Mr Bhutto in Mirpur Bhutto some time back and discussed his party’s ‘accord’ with the PML-N on the basis of which his Sindh National Front was merged into the PML-N, said the sources.

Chaudhry Ghulam Sarwar, former governor of Punjab and now organiser of PTI Punjab had also met Mr Bhutto in Lahore, said the sources.

Talking to journalists in Sukkur on Thursday, Dr Alvi said the fourth wicket of the government was about to come down. The ECP had given a bad name to the country by committing large scale rigging in the 2013 election, he said, adding it should, therefore, resign and tender an apology to people, he said.

He said the PTI chairman would visit Sukkur on Sept 2 and urged party workers to prepare to accord a warm welcome to their leader. He also asked them to prepare for the upcoming LG election.

SUP: The Sindh United Party has decided to field candidates on all seats in LG election.

Syed Zain Shah, central general secretary of SUP, said while addressing a meeting of prospective contestants in Larkana on Thursday that the candidates should keep in touch with people and asked them to submit their applications to a committee formed by the party to carry out scrutiny.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2015

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