PTI trying to spread fear by predicting bloodshed during polls, says Sharjeel

The Sindh government is going to give serious consideration to the prediction of a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader that the upcoming local government elections in Karachi will be a bloody affair.

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon said this as he addressed a press conference on Monday. He announced that the same leader of the PTI would be involved in the criminal investigation in case anyone attempted to commit mischief in the provincial capital on the polling day.

Without naming PTI leader Ali Zaidi, Memon said that earlier in the day, a PTI leader had addressed at a press conference in Karachi and said that bloodshed could occur during the coming local government polls in the city.

“Whether or not the Election Commission of Pakistan or any other authority takes cognisance of this statement, the Sindh government will surely take notice of this prediction,” Memon said.

He said the PTI leader who had predicted possible bloodshed on the polling day had earlier even lost the election for councillor in Karachi but due to the worst rigging in the 2018 general elections, he was elected an MNA and later on became a federal minister. “These elements want that an atmosphere of fear is created in Karachi so that the concerned citizens may not come out of their homes to cast their votes,” said the Sindh information minister.

He added that it was possible that these elements wanted to cause bloodshed in Karachi on the day of the local government elections. “Nobody knows with certainty what planning is going on in their minds,” he remarked.

Memon recalled that the PTI had earlier predicted that bloodshed could occur in its long march and later, violence did take place during that event. He said the Sindh government fully adhered to the direction of the ECP to hold local government polls in Karachi and Hyderabad on January 15.

Memon also made it clear that the federal interior ministry had to make a decision regarding the deployment of the Rangers and army in Karachi on the polling day. He said the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan was their allied political party and the Sindh government had done its best to resolve its issues. He, however, added that there were other constitutional forums in the country that had the final say on such affairs and the Sindh government was bound to implement the directions of these state agencies.

Talking about the Jamaat-e-Islami’s campaign for clinching the post of Karachi mayor, Memon recalled that in the 2013 general elections, the JI had boycotted the polling in the city midway around 2 pm.

He alleged that the JI’s leaders had twice held the position of Karachi mayor but they did not complete any mega development project in the city. He also alleged that the culture of Kalashnikov had been introduced in the educational institutions of Karachi by the JI.

Memon said the JI’s policy stood for imposing its will on other people by force and in pursuance of its politics of compulsion, the students in Karachi’s colleges and universities were stopped from holding cultural events.

He claimed that the Sindh government had carried out development in every sector of Karachi, and public health facilities in Karachi were more in number than in any other city in Pakistan.

He said the Sindh government had built the country’s first state-of-the-art infectious diseases hospital in Karachi and units had been established all over the city for emergency medical aid to heart patients.

Memon said the Sindh government had worked to improve the civic infrastructure in the city including educational facilities, parks, bridges, and road networks.

He said the Sindh chief minister had ordered deployment of the personnel of the Special Security Unit of Police on roads of Karachi to tackle the menace of street crime. He added that the Safe City project in Karachi would be completed in the next financial year while funds reserved for it in the current year had been slashed by 50 per cent due to the flood emergency.

He said that the mass popularity of the PPP in Karachi had been rising due to its practical work to develop the city. Memon a;sp rubbished the allegation levelled by PTI Chairman Imran Khan that political engineering was being carried out to influence politicians to join the PPP.