JUI-F workers block highways across Sindh over ‘rigging’
KARACHI: Activists of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) held sit-ins on highways and roads across the province on Wednesday in response to the party’s call for protest against what it saw as “technical rigging and engineering of election” to favour one particular party.
They demanded re-election in a fair and transparent manner and resignation of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
In Karachi, JUI-F activists staged sit-ins at Ghaggar Phatak and Sohrab Goth and on Hub River Road at Shershah Chowk where speakers termed July 25 a “black day” in the history of Pakistan.
They said that it was not election but selection. “We’ll continue to raise our voice against it and continue our peaceful protest,” they said.
JUI-F Sindh vice president Qari Mohammad Usman said at the sit-in in Shershah that people’s mandate had been insulted in massively rigged election.
He said that if the ECP was really impartial, it should allow vote recount in 50 per cent constituencies of the country to prove how far the election was transparent.
He said that all national-level parties had rejected the polls and their result. If ECP was to present election as a “gift” to PTI the chief election commissioner and his team needed not squander away Rs21 billion on a “staged” election, he said. He said that national leadership had rejected the election and had started countrywide protest against the “election joke”. The protest would continue till fresh election was called, he added.
HYDERABAD: Activists of JUI-F blocked a section of Hatri bypass in protest against rigging in general election, bringing traffic to a halt. Long queues of vehicles could be seen on both sides of the highway as police tried to divert traffic to link roads.
JUI-F Sindh leaders Abdul Malik Talpur, Maulana Taj Mohammad Nahiyoon and others said that engineering in general election was unprecedented. Election was rigged in spite of supervision by army and it was in fact done to defame army, he said.
They said that establishment believed that by keeping Maulana Fazlur Rehman out of parliament it could push religious parties against the wall.
But one must keep in mind that weakening religious parties would ultimately strengthen militant and nationalist organisations, they said.
They said that instead of holding such sloppy election a selection should have been made. The ECP had miserably failed in holding polls in a fair and transparent manner, hence, their demand for inquiry against the commission, they said.
JUI-F Sindh general secretary Rashid Mahmood Soomro, who addressed the protesters through phone, said that sit-ins would end only after JUI-F central leadership ended the protest in Islamabad.
LARKANA: JUI-F workers blocked Sujawal bypass of motorway connecting Larkana and Shahdadkot districts by staging a sit-in in protest against “large-scale rigging” in the just-concluded general election.
The workers pitched a tent on the road and blocked flow of vehicular traffic for over three hours.
Maulana Tahir Mehmood Soomro, Muhbat Khuhro and others who led the sit-in criticised poor performance on the part of ECP that had failed to ensure transparency in election.
They pointed out lacunas in the election process that had drastically damaged the ECP’s image and said the reports of ballot papers being found in schools’ dustbins and on garbage dumps were quite disturbing. JUI-F would not accept election result and the party demanded vote recount in the presence of its representatives, they said.
NAWABSHAH: Activists of JUI-F blocked both tracks of National Highway for about five hours to record protest against alleged rigging in election.
Party leader Hafiz Abdul Qayyum Channa who led the protesters said that the workers had blocked roads at 11 places across Sindh on the orders of JUI-F chief.
They alleged that rigging had been done on a massive scale just to favour PTI and Imran Khan. The protesters dispersed peacefully after five hours.
SUKKUR: JUI-F took out rallies and staged sit-ins in Jacobabad, Ghotki and Kandhkot towns.
The rally started from the party office and reached zero point bypass on National Highway where the participants held a sit-in for four hours, suspending flow of traffic between Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan.
In Ghotki, JUI-F staged a sit-in on National Highway and in Kandhkot, the party activists held a sit-in on Indus Highway.
The protesters’ leaders alleged that rigging had been committed on a massive scale under a well-planned conspiracy to hand technical victory to favourites.
They said that all people of the country were protesting except workers of one party and demanded transparent re-election and removal of chief election commissioner.
In Kandhkot, activists of Pakistan Peoples Party led by Gul Mohammad Jakhrani and others staged a sit-in at clock tower in protest against alleged rigging on NA-196 (Jacobabad).
The leaders said that Mr Jakhrani was handed defeat on NA-196 through rigging and demanded re-election or vote recount.
Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2018