‘I was wrongly declared winner in PS-129 as PTI-backed candidate actually won the seat’

Karachi Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, who was declared the winner in the provincial assembly constituency PS-129 District Central in the February 8 elections, has announced that he will not take oath as an MPA because he was wrongly declared the winner by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as according to the Form 45 results, the seat was actually won by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed independent candidate.

This unprecedented announcement in the political history of Pakistan was made at a press conference held at the Karachi JI headquarters, Idara Noor-e-Haq, on Monday. Rehman said the JI had been demanding transparency and fairness in the polls results and it would not have a single seat that it did not deserve.

Narrating the reasons behind his decision, he said that after a total count of the votes as per the form 45 available with the JI workers, it emerged that he had bagged 30,464 votes but the PTI-backed independent candidate received more votes than him. He claimed that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) candidate received only 6,010 votes.

He said the returning officer (RO) of the constituency had declared him the winner with 26,000 votes reducing the number of votes obtained by the PTI-backed candidate. He termed this result by the RO unacceptable.

The JI leader said the party believed in honesty and high moral values, due to which he would not avail the Sindh Assembly seat. He asserted that he did not want to be part of the nefarious game run by the ECP and the PTI-backed independent candidate deserved that seat.

“This seat is a slap on the face of the ECP,” he said, adding that the commission had gifted 15 National Assembly seats and 22 Sindh Assembly seats to the MQM-P although in reality, the MQM-P could not win even a single seat in Karachi.

Rehman said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan People Party supremo Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and all those delivering victory speeches on the basis of rigged elections should have shown grace and now they should feel ashamed.

He also asserted that the JI would not claim the seats won by someone else but at the same time, it would also not spare the seats that had fraudulently been snatched from it.

The JI leader asked the chief election commissioner if that was called the elections what he had managed to hold on February 8. He said his party had already written a letter to the chief justice of Pakistan detailing all the facts and figures, and appealed to him to take notice of the matter.

He said if the public mandate was bulldozed in such a bizarre fashion, it would result in the youth’s disbelief in the political process. Rehman stated that the JI believed in a political struggle for a prosperous and peaceful Pakistan and it would not compromise on its mandate.

Saifuddin Advocate, Munim Zafar, Raja Arif Sultan, Wajih Hassan, Mohammad Ahmed Qadri, Qazi Saddaruddin, Junaid Mukati, Akbar Qureshi, Nusrutallah and other leaders of the JI were also present on the occasion.