Forget about fair polls with Chohan around as Sindh’s election commissioner: MQM-P

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said on Friday that if the mandate of the people of Karachi is thrown into the trash bin in the upcoming general elections, the people will reject any such policy that has been consistent in the past 15 years.

“The Sindh Secretariat has now become Sindhi Secretariat,” he remarked in a press briefing, adding that the MQM-Pakistan is an obstacle to Sindhudesh and will not allow Sindh to become a separate country.

Siddiqui alleged that the caretaker government of Sindh is also playing a biased role, and the role of the Election Commission and the caretaker government is making the upcoming election suspicious.

He alleged that provincial election commissioner Aijaz Anwar Chohan has become an activist of a political party, and the things that are reaching us regarding the Election Commission’s Sindh chapter are worrisome. He stressed that all the constituencies must be corrected before the elections.

The MQM-P leader said the names of the permanent residents had been removed from the voter lists in the local bodies’ elections, and the worst gerrymandering was done in the union council constituencies. “Isn’t this all happening on ethnic grounds?” he asked and said that attitude of the chief minister is discriminatory against the residents of Urban centres of Sindh.

There is no platform which we could approach and raise our concerns there, he lamented and said the MQM-P approached courts and parliament but we were not heard. “Today, we feel again that the Election Commission played a biased role and a biased role is being played in delimitations of constituencies. On the contrary, the responsibility of the Election Commission is to conduct transparent elections and the responsibility of the Election Commission is to prevent pre- and post-poll rigging. If all this was done on ethnic grounds, then how will there be a fair and transparent election?” he asked and emphasized that the electoral body must look into concerns raised by the MQM-P.

He said that the MQM-P will approach courts for transparent delimitations before the elections. Speaking on this occasion, MQM-P Senior Deputy Convener Mustafa Kamal said the MQM-P has filed objections to the delimitations of 13 constituencies, but the statement of the provincial election commission creates doubts. The MQM-P believes that Provincial Election Commissioner Sindh Aijaz Anwer Chohan is an active member of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

The PPP rigged the national census in rural areas of Sindh, and now, the same plan is going to be implemented in the election commission. Chohan has accepted all objections to the delimitations of constituencies raised by the PPP but declined the objections raised by the MQM-P, he alleged.

He said that as long as Chohan is in office, the elections will not be fair and transparent. “The so-called people want us not to participate in the elections, but we will not boycott the elections in any case. We will not give up. Pakistan has been destroyed and ruined. All institutions including the economy have been destroyed. Pakistan cannot run without us.” Kamal further stated that the development and progress of Pakistan will be impossible without the

MQM-Pakistan.