THATTA: Unidentified armed men resorted to heavy aerial firing outside the residence of a candidate for local government election, who was contesting as an independent against the Pakistan Peoples Party rivals for ward No4 in Jati town late on Thursday night, creating widespread scare in the small coastal town.

Sources said that the firing that continued for around an hour was so intense that people remained indoors out of fear for their lives. After the firing came to an end, a large number of members of Mirbahar community and supporters of the independent candidate Juman Mirbahar gathered at his residence and staged a protest, accusing the ruling party candidate Juman Malkani of orchestrating the entire episode.

Mirbahar told local journalists that his opponents had been victimising him since the day he had taken the field against them to force him to withdraw in their favour but he would never do so because people had put their trust in him.

He said that his rivals wanted an open field for themselves but people had now become aware of their rights and they would no more support such thugs. The area police were hand and glove with influential politicians of the area and in a shameless example of sheer tyranny the DSP along with a heavy contingent of police stormed their houses instead of going after the suspects involved in the firing incident, he said.

PPP’s Juman Malkani rejected Mirbahar’s allegations and said the opposition candidate had hatched a conspiracy to entrap him and his fellow tribesmen who commanded great support in the area for the past four decades. The day of election would decide who was in the right, he said.

Jati SHO claimed that the situation was under control but sources revealed fear ruled the small coastal town the entire day as people were confined to their houses.

Police have not lodged any FIR of the incident.

JI protests postponement of polls

Activists of Jamaat-i-Islami staged a demonstration in Hyderabad on Friday in protest against Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for postponing the second phase of local government election, which was earlier scheduled for July 24.

JI leaders Aqeel Ahmed Khan, Abdul Waheed Qureshi, Dr Saifur Rehman and others demanded the LG election be held in Sindh. The ECP had served the purpose of undemocratic forces by postponing election, they said.

They said that postponement of election was in fact a robbery on people’s rights. The ECP had postponed election at the behest of Sindh government and its allies, which did not want election at this time, they said.

They said that controversial delimitations, anomalies in voter lists and postponement of LG polls constituted pre-poll rigging. The Sindh government wanted to get favourable results in collaboration with ECP and for this purpose millions of rupees had been spent from public exchequer.

They said that despite arrangements polls were postponed. The first phase of LG election was held in scorching heat but the second phase was being put off on the pretext of monsoon rains, they said.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2022