TLP stages march against LG poll ‘rigging’

The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) on Friday organised a ‘Save Karachi’ march from Tibet Center to the Sindh Election Commission office against the alleged rigging in the local bodies elections.

Leaders and workers of the party from across the city participated in the protest rally. The protesters were chanting slogans against the Sindh government, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Sindh Election Commission. They were also holding banners and placards in hands on which ‘Save Karachi’, ‘Shame on PPP government’ and such other slogans were written.

Addressing the protesters, Karachi TLP chief Mufti Muhammad Qasim Fakhri said that the chief election commissioner should immediately nullified the results of the “rigged” elections, and legal action should be taken against the returning officers and their subordinate staffers who became facilitators in the rigging.

Fakhri said the local government polls should be conducted under the security of the Pakistan Army and the supervision of independent observers. He said that before the local bodies elections, TLP candidates were abducted but the administration did not take any notice of such incidents.

He said the Sindh police on the behalf of the feudal lords of the PPP even violated laws. “We exposed the nexus of the PPP and the election commission at all levels.”

TLP leader Umar Farooq said the government machinery was used to restrict winning chances of the TLP candidates. The Sindh police and the staffers of the election commission played the role of a subsidiary organisation of the PPP, but the brave people of Sindh would defeat the PPP in the coming general elections.

TLP leader Ghulam Yasin Qadri said the police and returning officers recruited on a political basis were used to rig the polls. He termed the ECP office an election office of the PPP. To keep TLP voters away, the polling was started seven hours late and it ended in half an hour, he said, adding that our polling agents were kicked out by the Sindh police and we did not recognize such elections.