PPP’s defeat in mayoral election imminent, says Naeem

Despite its all-out fascist tactics, the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) defeat in the mayoral elections is imminent.

Karachi Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman made this remark while talking to the media after submitting on Saturday his nomination forms for the election for the Karachi mayor outside the regional office of the Election Commission of Pakistan in the city.

He announced that the JI would hold countrywide protests today (Sunday) on the appeal of its central emir Sirajul Haq against the PPP’s fascism in Karachi.

He added that Haq would lead the Save Karachi March to be held on Shahrah-e-Quaideen on Sunday against the PPP’s unconstitutional and fascist conduct in Karachi.

Talking about the mayoral election, Rehman said the JI and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) would come out in flying colours on the election day on June 15.

He expressed his hope that the Sindh High Court would rule against the PPP’s unconstitutional legislation that was enacted to impose an unelected person on the 35 million people of Karachi on wishes of the PPP leadership.

Talking about the renewed spree of arrests in Karachi aimed at elected union committee chairmen of the PTI, he condemned the arrests and alleged the Sindh government was behind them. He said some seven elected UC chairmen, including two who went missing last night, had been detained by the PPP regime under mala fide intentions in open violations of judicial orders.

He said the PPP government had not administrated oath to the detained chairmen despite clear orders by the Sindh High Court. He also held intelligence agencies and Rangers responsible for illegal detentions in Karachi.

The JI city chief said that initially, the PPP tried to lure the PTI’s elected chairmen by making false promises and now it had resorted to threats, arrests and fascist tactics.

Unfortunately, the PPP never changed its conduct in the past six decades, he said, adding that it had accepted the divide of the country but rejected to accept the mandate of its political opponents.

Similarly, he recaleld, the PPP had abducted Jan Muhammad Abbasi and others in the 1977 elections. He recalled that the PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the secretary of the Conventional League before the PPP and he used to call dictator Gen Ayub Khan “daddy”.

It was the same regime that had opposed Fatima Jinnah — the mother of the nation, Rehman said.

The JI leader also criticised the PPP for spending billions of rupees of taxpayers’ money on advertisement campaigns for the sake of political gains.