ASWJ boycotts NA-258 by-election in protest

Terms Hanfi’s detention a ‘conspiracy’ to keep party away from polls

As the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) rescheduled by-polls for the National Assembly’s NA-258 (Karachi-XX) constituency to November 28 on Tuesday, the banned Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) announced boycotting the election.

The party’s decision against participating in the polls for the Malir district seat was taken as a show of protest over the detention of Allama Muhammad Taj Hanfi, the ASWJ’s secretary general for Karachi, who was the party’s candidate for the upcoming by-election.

Addressing a news conference at the Karachi Press Club, ASWJ Central President Allama Aurangzeb Farooqi claimed that Hanfi’s detention was a “conspiracy” to discourage the party from contesting the polls.

In the wake of sectarian killings in the city, law enforcers had arrested Hanfi under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance for a month on November 7.

Farooqi also claimed that the party’s “voters and supporters are being harassed and our electoral campaign has been sabotaged”.

Following the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the ASWJ is the third political party to withdraw from the by-election.

PTI’s candidate Hanif Bangash, however, is still running his electoral campaign, while the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are supporting Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) candidate Abdul Hakeem Baloch. The ASWJ chief lamented to the reporters that his party had approached the Sindh High Court (SHC) and the ECP, but they were denied permission to run their electoral campaign freely.

On November 17 the SHC had dismissed Hanfi’s application seeking urgent hearing to postpone the by-polls.

Farooqi said that after consulting with clerics of the Ahle Sunnat school of thought, the ASWJ had decided to boycott the election.

He added that Hanfi would be the party’s NA-258 candidate for the 2018 general elections.

The Malir district seat fell vacant after former state minister for communication Abdul Hakeem Baloch’s resignation. He had left the PML-N and joined the PPP two months ago.

The ASWJ was boosted by its successes in the recent local government polls and the significant number of votes it had bagged in the 2013 general polls in Malir’s industrial and coastal area.

The party had participated in the local government elections under the banner of the Pakistan Rah-e-Haq Party and secured the slots of chairperson, vice-chairperson and councillor in several union committees in NA-258.