HYDERABAD, May 5: Leaders and candidates of the PPP in Hyderabad demanded on Sunday transfer of district returning officer (DRO) and implementation of the supreme court’s order regarding transfer of station house officers to prevent pre-poll rigging.

Expressing serious reservations about DRO Hassan Feroze, Hyderabad district administration and police officers at a press conference on Sunday, former Sindh minister and PPP president for Hyderabad district, Zahid Bhurgari, demanded implementation of the supreme court’s order regarding transferred station house officers (SHOs), whom he alleged had resumed charge over their old police stations.

Also present at the press conference were NA -219 candidate Ali Mohammad Sehto, PS-49 candidate Abdul Jabbar Khan, PS-48 candidate Rajab Ali and local PPP leader Aftab Khanzada. They said that electoral areas or census blocks assigned to polling stations since 2002 general election and 2001 local government election had been illegally shifted to polling stations far away from the electoral areas to favour the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

They said that previous polling stations had been situated in public places close to people’s homes, adding that the move of changing them was tantamount to pre-poll rigging.

PPP leaders and candidates said that no transport was to be provided to the voters according to the election commission’s code of conduct. Hence, they argued, when voters would not be able to reach polling stations it would provide an opportunity to the MQM to cast bogus votes without any resistance.

They said that the polling station of PS-47 (Qasimabad) was shifted to at a government hospital in Paretabad in PS-45 (Hyderabad-I), adding that other polling stations were also shifted in Hyderabad.

They said that they had filed objections before DRO Feroze against the drafted list of polling stations in the second week of April but they had been assured that polling stations would be shifted back to their original locations.

However, said PPP candidates, on April 29 they found that the polling stations had not been changed. On April 30, they continued, they appeared before the DRO and expressed their grievances in writing against shifting of the polling stations. But the DRO has refused to address their grievances.

The leaders also expressed reservations about SHOs and DSPs of Hyderabad police and alleged that many had resumed charged at their old police stations even after being transferred. They demanded removal of such SHOs and DSP and implementation of the apex court’s orders about transfers of police officers, adding that many officials had been involved in rigging the 2008 election.