KARACHI, Aug 22: A Pakistan People’s Party leader, Senator Raza Rabbani, on Monday condemned the firing incident at the residence of Senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmad in Karachi on Sunday.

Mr Rabbani claimed that the death toll in the first round of the local body elections continued to mount together with the cases of political violence. In such circumstances prime minister’s claim that elections were held in a peaceful manner was a cruel joke, he said.

He also cited the firing on leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, Nisar Khuhro in Larkana, Nawab Yusuf Talpur, MNA, Ali Mardan Shah in Umerkot and Sassi Palejo in Thatta besides Lal Shakeel, Pir Aftab, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Naveed Qamar etc. He accused the PML(Q) of promoting a new culture of political violence.

The PPP leader said that the PML government had embarked upon the path of fascism and wanted to physically eliminate the opposition.

Meanwhile, the members of the PPP election monitoring committee, Nisar Khuhro and Sherry Rehman, have asked the Chief Election Commissioner to explain what was the difference between the ratio of discarded votes in the elections elsewhere in the country and on those seats where Awam Dost Panel candidates were defeated in the recounting.