KARACHI, Oct 11: Jamaat-i-Islami secretary-general and central leader of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal Syed Munawwar Hasan has said that although the alliance has emerged victorious throughout the country, including Karachi, a conspiracy had been hatched to reduce its victory by converting the defeat of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement into a success under government patronage.

He said the alliance, according to results trickling in from various parts of the country, had won 62 seats, including seven out of the 20 National Assembly seats in Karachi. With the coming of more results, he said, our performance graph will continue to rise.

Speaking at a press conference at Idara Noor-i-Haq on Friday afternoon, Munawwar Hasan, who lost to the MQM’s Kanwar Khalid Yunus in NA-245, said the outcome of the Oct 10 polls was in fact a rejection vote against politics of “terrorism and extortion”. The people had become fed up with it, he added.

The MMA leader said had the election commission, the administration and the city government reacted timely on the complaints of efforts to turn “our victory into defeat in some of the polling stations in other National and provincial assembly constituencies, the MMA record would have been even more impressive.”

He said the people of Karachi had rejected the MQM which failed even to get one fourth of the votes which it had bagged in the past with its number of seats further decreasing. In addition to Karachi, he maintained, the MQM has also faced defeat in Hyderabad and whatever seats the Altaf group has won have, in fact, been handed over to it under the cover of terrorism and violence.

Mr Hasan said the MMA had lodged protest and demanded of the election commission to take notice of alleged irregularities in the constituencies where the MQM had been declared winner.

He assured the people of Karachi that in the constituencies where the MMA had been voted to power, the alliance would serve them with dedication and with the support of the masses would get them relieved from politics of extortion, terrorism, hatred and killings.

Earlier, he thanked the people of Karachi for the victory of the MMA. “We congratulate the people of the country on this bold and sincere decision and assure them that we would struggle to solve their problems,” he said, adding that the people of Karachi had for the first time gave a bold verdict.

Munnawar Hassan said the people of Karachi and Hyderabad had rejected the politics of extortion by giving a mandate to the MMA.

He accused certain police and polling officials of interference in the polling process and blamed them for providing cover to the MQM workers to manhandle other political workers.

He distributed a two-page statement among the newsmen in which details of violation of the code of conduct and other methods of engineered results were mentioned.

The list included polling stations where according to it after 3pm the MQM was given a free hand to fill the ballot boxes with bogus votes even after polling hours by making the polling agents hostage.

The polling stations where he alleged violation included NAs- 242, 244, 245, 246, 247, 249, 251, 252, 257 and PS-111, 114 and 117.

The newly-elected MNAs, Asadulla Bhutto, Abdul Sattar Afghani, Laeeq Ahmad, Aslam Mujahid and others were also present.