KARACHI, Oct 8: The provincial chief of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, on Saturday rejected the unofficial results of the third phase of the local body elections and alleged that the whole process was manipulated and rigged by the regime at various stages.
Addressing a news conference before Iftar at his residence, Mr Shah did not rule out the possibility of challenging the local body elections as a whole besides having recourse to judiciary.
The PPP-Sindh Executive Committee would meet on Sunday to examine the cause of almost a whitewash of the opposition backed Awam Dost Panel (ADP) in the local body elections.
At the very outset, however, Mr Shah expressed grief over the loss of lives in the earthquake that rocked the capital and other parts of the country on Saturday. He condoled with the affected families.
Mr Shah called for immediate and intensive investigation to find out why a recently constructed building could not withstand the jolt.
Mr Shah slammed the regime for delayed rescue operations in Islamabad even after jolts were felt for two hours. This, he said, indicated how pathetic its (regime’s) relief operations could be in rural areas.
Accompanied by representatives of other components of the provincial ARD besides central and provincial leaders of the party, Mr Shah was of the view that the regime had cleverly plotted to manipulate the third stage through excessive use of state machinery for harassing and bribing elected representatives.
Mr Shah also blamed the regime for manipulating results in what he called the PPP strongholds in Larkana, Jacobabad and other places. But, he made no reference to in-fights in the party at the local level that had also contributed to proliferation of defectors, whether under duress or through monetary and other inducements.
Mr Shah also referred to the rejection of the ADP’s candidates in Chachro and Nagar Parkar because they had tried to contest against the nephew of Chief Minister Dr Arbab Rahim.
He also alleged that in Mitthi, ADP councillors and candidates were not allowed by security forces to enter polling stations, and by 10am, government proxies had stuffed ballot boxes.
He said that the ADP candidates had immediately sent telegrams and faxes to the chief election commissioner to seek his indulgence but nothing was done.
Mr Shah once again alleged that besides the police, dacoits were also recruited by the regime to intimidate elected representatives to cast votes in favour of official candidates.
Nevertheless, Mr Shah acknowledged that many elected councillors gave in to pressures and inducements.
When Mr Shah was asked how the party leadership would react against defectors and how he looked at the victory of those who had defied party nominees, Mr Shah said the party had given show cause notices to some of them and said the matter would be examined by the leadership.
Mr Shah said the Karachi Coordination Committee of the PPP had examined the evolving situation and, in view of the earthquake, stressed a re-study of construction of dams in seismic zones, as storage of a large quantity of water in such zones may trigger seismic activity.
He said the PPP was of the view that such natural vagaries are Almighty Allah’s signals to remind us of His mortality, and the need to do good for fellow human beings, saying that it should be taken as a reminder.
The PPP also condemned the attack on the worship place of Ahmedis in Mandi Bahauddin in which many innocent citizens were killed .