KARACHI: A day after Jamaat-i-Islami’s Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman levelled serious allegations of rigging against the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday contacted the former over the phone and assured him that his legitimate concerns on the results of local government election would be addressed.

Not only the chief minister, but other members of his cabinet also held press conferences to reject Hafiz Naeem’s criticism and simultaneously extended an olive branch to the agitated JI.

PPP Karachi division president and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani said if the JI wanted to secure the position of Karachi’s mayor, the two parties had to hold a serious discussion on this issue.

The chief minister asked the JI leader to contact the Election Commission of Pakistan regarding his complaints. He was also learnt to have told Hafiz Naeem that his government would play an impartial role in solving the problems that were with the provincial government.

Murad assures JI leader of addressing legitimate concerns

On the other hand, PPP Sindh President Nisar Ahmad Khuhro came down hard on the JI city chief for his criticism on the election results.

Mr Khuhro and Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon told a press conference that the majority mandate given to the PPP by people should be recognised.

They said that the PPP had emerged number one party and the JI second in the local government elections in the city.

The PPP provincial chief, however, took exception to the statement of Hafiz Naaem to the effect that the PPP could not win from Karachi even in 100 years and said that he considered the JI leader as a serious politician, but his statement was undemocratic and dictatorial. “If you [JI] want to improve Karachi, you should not level baseless allegations of rigging like PTI Chairman Imran Khan,” he added.

He said that the JI leader was criticising the delay of two days in the LG polls results, but the party remained a silent spectator in 2001, when the election results came after 10 days.

Separately, PPP city chief Ghani said: “We consider Jamaat-i-Islami a serious and wise political party as both the PPP and Jamaat faced terrorism, lawlessness, and politics of hatred, and we [PPP] don’t want that the situation in the city gets worsened again at the pretext of certain issues related to split mandate of Karachi.”

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2023