LARKANA: The Larkana Awami Ittehad (LAI) has decided to abstain from the election scheduled for July 10 to elect the mayor of Larkana.

Sources privy to the issue said the mayoral candidate of the LAI, Union Council-2 (UC-2) chairman Rafa-u-Ali, had held a meeting with his like-minded chairmen Awais Ali Abbasi of UC-3, Gada Hussain Abro of UC-5, Changiz Abro of UC-6 and Mehmood-ul-Hassan Soomro of UC-11, and two women members on Tuesday at Kot Durrab [Waleed] and decided to boycott the polls.

They alleged that pro-government chairmen had forcibly been sent out of the city and their whereabouts were unknown. These kinds of “calculated attempts” were in violation of the rules and in contravention of election principles. Keeping in view the whole scenario, they had decided to boycott the poll to be held to elect new mayor of the Larkana Municipal Corporation.

The seat fell vacant when Mohammed Aslam Shaikh, as per the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman’s decision, had tendered resignation and for the transitory period pro-PPP Anwar Luhar was asked to run the affairs. Now the PPP had issued party ticket to Khair Mohammed Shaikh, who is also general secretary of Larkana district PPP, for the slot. Rafa-u-Ali had filed the papers to contest the mayor’s elections, but at the eleventh hour, he announced to boycott the polls after consulting his colleagues.

The presiding officer who witnessed arrangements for the election at Arts Council told Dawn that the polling on Wednesday would be held from 9am to 5pm when 26 members of the corporation would exercise their right to vote.

The entire house consists of 30 members where the PPP had majority of 19 votes while the LAI had the strength of only seven members. Total four seats had fallen vacant as three of them joined government service while one had died, the sources said.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2019