JI continues protest drive against ‘rigging’ in LG by-polls

The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on Sunday held protest demonstrations at multiple places of Karachi to decry what it said rigging in the recent local government by-polls in several union committees (UC) of Karachi.

The demonstrations were held in Liaquatabad Landhi and Korangi areas.

JI Ieaders Saifuddin advocate, Kamran Siraj, Mirza Farhan Baig, Faraz Haseeb and others addressed the demonstrations in which a large number of local residents and political activists participated.

The protesters, carrying placards and banners, chanted slogans against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for what they said committing rigging in the by-polls.

Saifuddin, the leader of the opposition in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation City Council, while addressing the protest demonstration in Liaquatabad said that unfortunately, the people of Karachi had been protesting for their due rights and justice even after 77 years of independence.

He stressed the need for a decisive struggle against the corrupt rulers who had captured the public offices by the support of establishment.

The JI leader said that the resistance movement by the people would not be launched for the sake of a few UCs or seats in the provincial and national legislature but it would be aimed at uprooting the entire corrupt system.

He held the PPP responsible for miseries of the people of Karachi. The public earlier had just one right — the right to vote — but now that right had also been stolen, he remarked.

The other speakers also shed light on pre-poll and post-poll rigging tactics used by the PPP government.

They also stated that the ECP was hands in gloves with the PPP against Karachiites.