KARACHI, Aug 28: The Pakistan People’s Party and Jamaat-i-Islami have started preparing separate whitepapers containing evidences of rigging, bogus voting, changing of results and capturing of polling stations allegedly by the government-backed parties and groups in the first and second phases of the local bodies elections held on August 18 and 25, it was learnt through party sources.
The two parties had agreed during the All-Parties Conference organized by the JI’s Karachi chapter earlier this week to issue a ‘joint whitepaper’ containing grievances of the candidates backed by opposition parties. Such complaints have already been submitted with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), law-enforcement agencies and other concerned authorities, besides international observers.
There were also reports that the PPP and JI, along with other likeminded parties, were considering a joint nationwide protest movement against the government. However, it seems that the two parties, dominating their respective political alliances, are still reluctant to trust each other in this regard.
The Jamaat, a major component of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal observed ‘Black Day’ on Friday against, what it regards as ‘fraud elections’ leading to the defeat of the JI-backed candidates in Karachi and Hyderabad. It organized protest demonstrations outside many mosques in Karachi and mobilized supporters of the parties that form the MMA.
The PPP, however, is awaiting for the outcome of an ARD meeting scheduled for August 29 in Lahore to finalize a future course of action in the backdrop of the ‘rigging and engineered results’ that led to the defeat of the PPP-backed candidates in its strongholds in Sindh.
A central leader of the JI’s Shoora, who preferred not to be named at this stage, said that his party had started collecting documentary proofs pertaining to poll rigging in Sindh, especially in Karachi and Hyderabad, and was also collecting views of general public on the conduct of the LB polls.
He said that the party had asked the candidates and polling agents of JI-backed groups to furnish details of their experiences and evidences of rigging, besides accounts of hooliganism and vandalism. They have also been advised to narrate the accounts of partiality on the part of the election commission staff, he added.
According to him, the JI was approaching NGOs and international observers for their views in order to substantiate the claims of rigging, ballot stuffing, expulsion of polling agents from polling stations and changing of results.
A PPP leader, when contacted, said that his party had already issued to the media a list of over 200 complaints with details of rigging, incidents of violence against voters and candidates and violations of ECP code of conduct, all by Sindh coalition partners.
“We are waiting for the outcome of the August 29 meeting of the ARD in Lahore to decide a line of action for exposing the government’s real face before the nation and the world.” He said that although, most of the ARD and MMA components were unanimous on many issues, but there was still a long way to go for reaching a concrete agreement.
Meanwhile, a PML-Nawaz leader in Sindh said that his party was not going to issue any whitepaper or hold protest demonstrations in Sindh. However, in Punjab, it would adopt a joint course of action along with other ARD parties, including PPP, against poll rigging, he added.
He maintained that all big and smaller opposition parties were establishing contacts with each other for forging a grand alliance against the government in order to get the people rid of the military rule. He was of the view that people regarded the recent LB polls as a rehearsal of next general elections.
He warned that if opposition parties remained divided and did not pursue a joint strategy, this would only benefit the ruling clique and strengthen its dictatorship.—PPI