ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has asked the chief election commissioner to take note of the victimization of Awam Dost candidates and their supporters, especially in Sindh and Punjab, and the use of government resources by ministers and advisers for their election campaign.
The media coordinator of the central monitoring committee for the local bodies elections PPP Nazir Dhoki, while issuing the second factsheet regarding cases of victimization of Awam Dost candidates and their supporters, said these had already been brought to the notice of the Election Commission.
He said it seemed that the Election Commission was helpless in stopping government functionaries from committing gross violations of the election laws. Detailing the cases, the factsheet says that after Punjab and Sindh, President Gen Pervez Musharraf was campaigning in the NWFP for the pro-government candidates. He even addressed a public meeting in Swat asking people to vote for PML-Q candidates.
It said the candidate for Adowal union council naib nazim, Mirza Abid, was kidnapped from the sessions court on the day of the scrutiny of papers, while police arrested Azhar Hussain, a naib nazim candidate, in Gujrat. The police had also snatched a vehicle of Zafar Iqbal, a nazim candidate, in Gujrat.
Candidates supported by the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy are being threatened and forced to withdraw their nomination papers, it said. The factsheet says that the MQM is openly threatening Awam Dost candidates in Karachi. Abdul Hameed, the proposer of an Awam Dost candidate for the slot of Gulshan-i-Iqbal Union Council 11 nazim, was kidnapped from the PPP Office Karachi.
False cases have been registered against the candidate for the seat of Jamshed Town naib nazim, Jamshed Ghani, as well as Aurangzeb. Similarly false cases have been registered against candidates for nazim and naib nazim in Ranipur union council in Khairpur, Hakim Ali Dayo and Abdul Khaliq Bhutto, respectively.
The factsheet claims that the police are also targeting and harassing Awam Dost candidates and their supporters in Dadu and Jamshoro at the behest of the Sindh chief minister and Federal Minister Liaquat Jatoi.
Nazir Dhoki said all such complaints were sent to the Election Commission but so far no action had been taken. He demanded immediate release of those arrested and initiation of cases against the DCOs and DPOs of the area where these atrocities had taken place.