HYDERABAD: Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan-Noorani (JUP-N) president and Milli Yakjehti Council head Dr Sahibzada Abul Khair Mohammad Zubair has alleged that the mandate of people was stolen in the general elections after a record rigging, including ejection of polling agents from polling stations, unavailability of Form 45, ballot papers lying in garbage etc.

A candidate for NA-227, Dr Zubair said that if the votes were recounted, results could be changed. He said the JUP-N submitted an application for vote recount, but it was rejected, according to a press release on Tuesday.

He said the rulers should not think that if religious forces were removed from parliament, they would be free to take any decision. Religious forces would continue to play their role in protecting Islamic laws as their prime duty, he added.

Mr Zubair said that despite all reservations, his party hoped that the new rulers would ensure protection of Islamic laws and impose them. Issues of the people could be resolved through this system, he said.

MITHI: Members of the Bheel community of Mithi town again gathered in a large number at Kashmir Chowk to hold a protest demonstration on Tuesday against what they claimed “rigging by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)” in the July 25 election in NA-222 Tharparkar-II and PS-56 Tharparkar-III constituencies.

Independent candidates Lajpat Bheel and Haimraj Bheel, both advocates who had formed the ‘Bheel Ittehad’, lost to their PPP rivals in the election.

Speaking at the hours-long demonstration, they alleged that PPP candidates and their other leaders were directly involved in large-scale rigging. They urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to take notice of it.

They also alleged that their voters were harassed at various polling stations. The Bheel community vowed to continue their protest against the alleged rigging and political victimisation.

Hundreds of Bheels had attended an election rally of the two candidates at the same place on July 22.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2018