KARACHI, Aug 3: The People’s Party Parliamentarians on Wednesday demanded action against the Tharparkar district returning officer for allegedly ignoring woes of people and making a mockery of the electoral process in the district.

Urging the Chief Election Commissioner for necessary action, the head of the PPP monitoring committee for the local body elections, Taj Haider, alleged that the returning officer had been holding secret meetings with relatives of Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim and his staff was extending support to candidates belonging to the Arbab group.

“It is the failure of the returning officer to protect hundreds of candidates of the Awam Dost Panel who had obtained nomination papers but could not make it to the polling date in the face of ruthless victimization at the hands of the state machinery,” he observed. He alleged that the Tharparkar returning officer was hands in glove with the Arbab group.

He maintained that unopposed ‘election’ of ruling party candidates in 37 union councils of the Tharparkar district was a mockery of the government’s claims of free, fair and transparent elections. The PPP demanded that the election process in the district should be nullified and a fresh schedule should be announced there along with security and safety to candidates as well as voters.

The monitoring cell also condemned the killing of Gamoon Khaskheli, father-in-law of an ADP candidate for the seat of nazim, Rafiq Khaskheli, in the Gharo taluka. It criticized the Thatta police for registering a case against people protesting against the murder. “Such cruelty on the part of police in Sindh clearly shows that the province has been converted into a police state ahead of the elections,” it added.

It claimed that Karam Ali Bhanojo, an ADP candidate of Asgharabad union council, had been arrested by SHO Ghulam Rasool along with his relatives.