The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has demanded that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) immediately declare the withheld results of the local government elections in certain union committees of Karachi.
Addressing a press conference at the Sindh Assembly on Friday, Sindh Labour and Human Resources Minister Saeed Ghani, who is also the Karachi PPP president, said that no written order had been issued by the ECP to withhold poll results in six union committees (UCs) of Karachi as the same had been done on the verbal instructions.
He said that withholding of the poll outcome violated the constitution and relevant laws Ghani said that verbal instructions to withhold election results in Karachi did not carry any legal value. He told the media that the returning officers had not listened to the successful candidates in the UCs in question before withholding their results.
As per the Constitution, election laws and Sindh Local Government Act 2013, only an affected candidate could file an application to challenge the preliminary results of the polls, Ghani said, adding that in the instance of the six UCs, the results of the polls were withheld following the filing of an application by a deputy emir of the Jamaat-e-Islami who was not a candidate in the polls.
The labour minister told the media that election tribunals should have been approached by the concerned candidates to challenge the poll result in any UC of Karachi instead of directly sending an application to the ECP for the purpose.
He said that in the case of these six UCs, none of their contesting candidates had filed any application to challenge the election results. Ghani said they had to come to know through the media that election results in another three UCs of Karachi had been withheld where after recounting of votes, the JI’s candidates had lost the polls. He said that withholding of the poll results in these three UCs was also without any lawful basis.
“The Election Commission has been working very well as it shouldn’t be rendered controversial after coming under the pressure of the Jamaat-e-Islami,” said Ghani.
He said it seemed to him that an attempt was being to unduly render controversial the elections in Karachi, which had been quite fairly conducted, after succumbing to pressure from a political party.
He, however, clarified that he was not levelling any allegations against the ECP as his demand was in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws.