JI moves SHC against ‘harassment’ of PTI chairmen, vice chairmen

The Jamaat-e-Islami on Monday filed a petition in the Sindh High Court, seeking administration of the oath to those elected members of the local bodies government who have been either arrested or in are hiding due to police harassment.

Filing the petition, Karachi Jamaat-e-Islami emir and mayoral candidate Hafiz Naeemur Rehman submitted that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had secured vital 41 seats of chairman and vice chairman from different union councils of Karachi and announced its unconditional support for him as candidate for the city mayor’s slot.

He alleged that the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party was trying to capture the office of the mayor by hook or by crook and they were using state machinery to deprive the citizens of their duly elected mayor.

Rehman said all illegal measures were taken by the provincial government and functionaries during the election process, and now they had started pressurizing the council members, especially elected on the PTI ticket, by police raids on their residences, threats by rouge elements and involvement of elected candidates in false cases and blind FIRs.

PTI candidates were being stopped from participating in the process for elections to reserved seats and police were raiding the residences of the elected chairman and vice chairman elected on the PTI ticket to stop them from casting their votes in favour of the JI, he further alleged.

He said the elected chairman of UC-2 Jamshed Town, Firdous Shamim, Umar Daraz of UC-10 North Nazimabad Town, Syed Amjad Hussain, chairman of UC-5 Korangi Town, and Mohammad Mustafa, elected chairman of UC-1 Mominabad Town, had been arrested and sent to different prisons and were not being allowed to take the oath to cast their votes.

He said the elected members are bound to cast their votes as per the decision of their political parties, and in case of deviation the defection clause as per the Sindh Local Government Act will apply to them.

The court was requested to direct the ECP to ensure fair and free elections of the mayor, deputy mayor, chairmen and vice chairmen of the KMC and towns respectively by providing members of the city council free access to the polling places set up by the ECP.

He asked that directions be issued to the ECP to immediately arrange the administration of the oath to those elected members who are under arrest and in hiding due to police harassment and to provide them the facility to cast their votes in their respective councils.

The petitioner also sought a restraining order for the police to stop harassing the elected members of local government by raising their houses, arresting their family members and managing their forced meetings with ruling party office-bearers after their arrests at police stations. The court was further requested to direct the ECP to ensure all elected members took the oath even if they were in jail, and if it was not possible within the schedule, revise the schedule for the mayoral election.