KARACHI, Aug 26: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) observed black day in the city on Friday to register their protest against what they termed, ”massive rigging under government patronage in the local government elections.”

The MMA activists organized corner meetings and staged demonstrations in front of mosques in various parts of the city. JI Karachi chief Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui, MNAs Mohammad Hussain Mehanti, Abdul Sattar Afghani, Mohammad Laeeq, MPAs Hameedullah Khan, Yunus Barai, Nasrullah Khan Shaji, JI leaders Mohammad Muslim, Shamim Pasha, Kamal Ahmad Farooqi and others spoke to the participants.

Accusing the authorities of hijacking the mandate of people to impose an unpopular group on the city to acquire their vested interests, the speakers sought dismissal of the acting chief election commissioner, and called upon the Supreme Court to take notice of the rigging and declare elections null and void.

They also warned that continuity of the army rule was harmful for the solidarity of the country.

“The country has already suffered and the present government can no more hoodwink people in the name of enlightenment. Terrorists have been imposed on the city through record rigging to tell their US masters that the city got rid of from pro-Islam forces, and that the enlightened people are coming forward.”

The participants of the rallies were holding banners, placards and were raising slogans against rigging, making polling staff hostage, pushing out polling agents from the polling stations and trampling the sanctity of the vote.

JI Karachi chief Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui, who addressed the rally outside Jamia Mosques Saleh, Jehangir Park, said the city was again pushed into darkness and the government was responsible for it.

He said the government had become active to fail the new local government system.

Mr Mehanti said that the Aug 18 polling was a drama when all records of rigging were broken.

Demanding resignation from the acting chief commissioner, he said that lunch boxes filled with stamped ballot papers were supplied in the polling stations uninterruptedly and despite pointation by the polling agents, no action was taken.

Meanwhile, parliamentarians of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) said on Friday the arrest of 25 armed sector, zonal and unit in-charges of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) by Rangers in Hyderabad had proved once again that those levelling allegations of terrorism on others were themselves involved in terrorism and massacre of political opponents, adds PPI.

In a joint statement, MMA MNAs Muhammad Hussain Mehanti, Abdul Sattar Afghani and Laiq Ahmed Khan deplored that the release of armed terrorists on intervention of senior military officials had proved that rulers were patronizing terrorists and trying to re-impose them on the people of Sindh.

They accused the police and Rangers of acting as the B-team of the MQM in Sindh and were jeopardizing the country’s sovereignty.

They said that the Rangers had earlier recovered a large cache of arms and masks from a vehicle under the use by Sindh Minister Shakir Ali in Karachi, but the incident was buried and the culprits were released.