JI to challenge ECP decision on six Orangi Town UCs

Karachi Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has announced that the party is going to challenge “the controversial verdict” for six union councils of Orangi Town that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had taken earlier.

Addressing a press conference on Saturday at Idara Noor-e-Haq, the party’s headquarters in Karachi, he said that unfortunately, the ECP had played “a very condemnable role” to facilitate the PPP government.

Rehman elaborated that the ECP, instead of examining forms 11 and 12 of the six union councils, ordered recounting votes under the supervision of the returning officers and district returning officers responsible for “post-poll rigging”.

The JI had submitted before the ECP that the results of polling at 66 stations were changed and the commission had said all the returning officers would be summoned to the hearing, he said, adding that the commission had also demanded exemplary punishment for those returning officers and district returning officers involved in changing the results.

He maintained that the ECP totally kept silent about those presiding officers involved in rigging and announced recounting of the votes as the PPP-backed officials had already snatched some seats of the JI through recounting despite broken seals and torn ballot bags.

The JI leader further said that the ECP provided an opportunity to the PPP for rigging the results and tampering with the ballot papers by holding and delaying the decisions for over two months.

He lambasted the government for resorting t gas loadshedding at the time of iftar and sehri in the holy month of Ramazan despite announcements contrary to it. He also condemned the electricity company in the city for what he called “its poor performance”, which was making Karachiites suffer in Ramazan.

A day earlier on Friday, the JI hosted am event in the honour of young boxers Agha Kaleem, Muhammad Sabir and Muhammad Nisar who participated in the Muay Thai World Kickboxing Championship held in Thailand and brought home two gold medals and a bronze medal.