MQM-Pakistan to challenge local govt poll results in court

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Deputy Convener Wasim Akhtar has said his party will approach the court against the alleged pre-poll rigging in the local government elections held on Sunday.

“The Election Commission of Pakistan [ECP] has completely failed to conduct transparent elections. Everyone has seen the biased attitude of the ECP, which rejected our valid requests,” he said while addressing a press conference with MQM-P Deputy Convener Abdul Waseem on Tuesday.

Akhtar said Pakistan as well as the whole world has seen the true face of the Pakistan People Party (PPP). The little budget that the local bodies will receive, the PPP has taken control of that budget too, he pointed out.

He said the MQM-P had been voicing their concerns for a long time at various forums regarding the inaccuracies in the LG election constituencies. However, he added, the current ECP and the Sindh government have disregarded justice and the law.

He questioned the transparency of the upcoming general elections, referring to the video clips being aired on TV channels and circulated on social media that show ballot boxes and papers being mishandled in public.

He also criticised the low voter turnout, and accused the PPP of rigging the polls and creating 75 UCs with incorrect population ratios. He appealed to the chief justice of the Supreme Court to take action.

He said the residents of Sindh have been denied their right to representation. He concluded by thanking the people for their successful withdrawal from the elections, which he deemed a victory of their stance.

Replying to a question, he claimed that the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had sold the representation of the people of Karachi and Hyderabad to the PPP for a few seats, for which the residents of both cities will never forgive them.