HYDERABAD, Aug 20: The adviser to the Sindh chief minister on local bodies and kutchi abadis, Mr Wasim Akhtar, has deplored the fact that electoral lists were not updated and defective lists were being used in the local government elections.

He rejected allegations of opposition parties that in the first phase of local body elections were rigged.

He was speaking at a gathering organised by Javed Junejo and Sohail Asim, the secretaries of two social clubs and later speaking to journalists here at the Hyderabad Club on Friday night.

He said that his party had received complaints that names of eligible voters were missing and that these were not updated.

The adviser said that his party would take up this matter with the National Database Registration Authority and the Election Commission.

He dismissed reports that elections were rigged in the first phase and quoted examples of arrest of two presiding officers in Karachi for malpractice, indicating that elections rules were being adhered to otherwise presiding officers were never arrested in the past.

He said that the army was called in on the request of religious parties and fortunately no grave situation occurred in the Sindh province.

About Dr Farooque Satar’s visit to Jamaat-i-Islami’s provincial headquarters in Karachi, he said that it was second attempt of his party to show goodwill gesture and to have better relationship with all political parties adding that earlier the JI was invited to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-sponsored APC in Karachi but it did not turn up.

The adviser said that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement was against the greater Thal canal and the Kalabagh dam but it did not mean that other development works should be stopped and claimed that because of follies of Sindh, Punjab had marched on the path of progress.