Lobbying for PML-N going on at Governor House: PPP

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) claimed on Saturday that lobbying for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) candidate contesting the upcoming PS-114 (Karachi-XXVI) by-elections was under way at the Governor House.

PPP Senator Saeed Ghani levelled the accusation during a news conference at the party’s media cell, where he said it would be incorrect to state that the Sindh government’s machinery was being used for the by-poll.

Instead, added Ghani, the city mayor himself was campaigning for the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) candidate for the by-election. The PPP leader claimed that the deputy mayor also accompanied the mayor in the drive. He said the staff of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation was being used for the MQM-P’s electoral campaign.

“On the one hand the PPP’s opponents claim that the party has done nothing [for the people] in the past nine years, but on the other hand we are being bombarded with criticism for carrying out development works in the [PS-114] constituency. These projects can never be termed illegal.”

Ghani said the allegations by the PPP’s opponents stemmed from their foresight that the party was likely to win the by-poll. He said no untoward incident had been reported during the PPP’s campaigning despite the party’s flags and banners being forcibly removed in some parts of the constituency. “We shall not react for the sake of peace.”

He said the candidate of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was liberally spending money in the constituency. “But all such tactics of our opponents are bound to fail because only the PPP would emerge victorious on July 9 [election day].”

Backing his fellow party leader, PPP Sindh General Secretary Waqar Mehdi said the Peoples Party would emerge as the biggest political party of the metropolis in the coming days.

He said the PPP’s candidate for the PS-114 by-poll would win and his victory would be the first in a series of successes, culminating in making the party the biggest party of Karachi.

Later, addressing an iftar-dinner in PS-114, Ghani said people who had not even seen the constituency were contesting the by-poll. “Those distributing ration and money in the constituency should not consider the locals as lamb and goats. The people have rejected such candidates.”

The PPP senator said the PS-114 by-poll was an “election between millionaires who have ventured from outside the constituency and those residing inside the constituency”.

‘False allegations’

The PML-N’s by-poll candidate, Ali Akbar Gujjar, said the party had always been “steadfast in promoting the cause of democracy and fighting off challenges to the democratic dispensation in the country”.

Gujjar said the role of the Nawaz League in that regard was beyond any doubt and appreciated well by all the relevant quarters. “I fail to understand whose designs Ghani has been trying to achieve by levelling false allegations against me.”

He said the PML-N had always been at the forefront of the struggle for promoting democracy in the country, and asked how the party could take any step to taint the electoral process that was considered the nursery of any democratic system.

“As far as the allegation of meeting the governor is concerned, one should understand that he is the governor of the entire province and would not object to meeting any relevant person or institution.”

He clarified that he had met the governor “with the primary aim to apprise him of the steps of the Sindh government that were tantamount to pre-poll rigging”.

PPP’s membership swells

Earlier, a delegation of political activists led by the purported first chief security officer of MQM founder Altaf Hussain, Umer Goga, announced joining the Peoples Party during the news conference.

The group said the PPP was “a political party for the masses”, adding that more of their political associates would soon join the Peoples Party after quitting the MQM.

They said they had opted for the PPP because “the party’s daring leadership has become an exemplary model for politics all over the world”. Mehdi welcomed the activists on their decision to join the party.

Rangers at polling stations

PTI MPA Khurrum Sher Zaman demanded through a statement that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) deploy Sindh Rangers inside and outside every polling station in the PS-114 constituency on election day.

Zaman made the demand “to ensure a peaceful environment and to curtail electoral fraud and rigging”. He urged the ECP to engage the paramilitary force for the following responsibilities and tasks:

“The Rangers must be given charge of transporting the election material to and from the polling stations, the soldiers must be present inside and outside all polling stations on polling day, and they must be present at the time of counting and when the result forms are being completed. This would ensure the by-election of being free, fair and transparent.”

The MPA said that in a democracy, organising free and fair elections was more crucial than the result itself and, therefore, the ECP must play its role in improving the electoral process. “The election commission must ensure a level playing field for all the parties so that the polls could be accepted as credible.”