ANP, PPP, JUI-F protest in capital against KP LB ‘rigging’

ISLAMABAD: Leaders of the ANP, JUI-F and PPP along with independent candidates belonging to Nowshera district on Saturday staged a protest in front of the National Press Club and asked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak to tender resignation over alleged rigging in local bodies elections.
Participants of the protest chanted slogans like “Go Khattak Go” and demanded the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to declare local bodies elections in Nowshera district null and void due to unprecedented rigging by the provincial administration.
The protesters also chanted slogans against the PTI chief Imran Khan and held him responsible for election rigging as according to them Imran was fully aware about the illegal activities of the KP ministers during the local bodies elections.
They also started a march towards Bani Gala to stage sit-in in front of the residence of Imran Khan but later they returned to the press club when they were told that the PTI chief was not in Islamabad.
Speaking on the occasion, the ANP leader Shahid Khan Khattak said insufficient security arrangements, mismanagement and irregularities in the polling process has compromised the government’s claims of holding free and fair elections.
“The PTI-led provincial government miserably failed to live up to the expectations of the people that was why it used all the available resources to carry out rigging to steal the mandate of the opponent parties,” he said.
The JUI-F leader Mufti Imtiaz said their two candidates including Malik Amanullah and Malik Umer Farooq won the local bodies polls but the local administration directly intervened on the orders of Pervaiz Khattak to manipulate the election results.
“The PTI-led government has no respect for democracy and the electoral process and massive rigging in the local government elections showed that all their slogans regarding free and fair elections were just an attempt to befool the people,” he said.
The PPP leader Barrister Zafar said his party has strong reservations over rigging in the local bodies elections and demanded of ECP to take appropriate action to address the grievances of the candidates.
He said Imran Khan always levelled baseless allegations against his opponents but at the same time he used to avoid assessing his own actions. “It was really astonishing when Imran said that KP minister Ali Amin Gandapur just reached the polling station to stop rigging in the election,” he said.
Earlier, participants of the protest march visited the office of the ECP and submitted their application stating that the KP government was directly involved in rigging during the local bodies polls that is why these elections should be declared null and void and re-election should be held in the Nowshera district.