PPP upset over election commission’s inaction on complaints

Senator Taj Haider has expressed disappointment over the inaction of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on the complaints filed by the central election cell of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

Haider, the cell’s chief, said in a statement on Wednesday that this inaction not only cuts at the roots of fair elections, but also encourages anti-democratic elements to violate the election laws and the ECP’s directives with impunity.

The PPP’s election cell had complained about the transfer of more than a hundred assistant commissioners in Sindh by the province’s caretaker government in gross violation of the ECP’s directives, added the senator.

He said the interference of Federal Investigation Agency Director General Basheer Memon in the election of his brother in Hala is a most serious matter.

He added that the election cell had requested that Memon be posted somewhere else so he could not influence voters.

Unfortunately, said Haider, the ECP ignored the request despite the fact that in other similar cases, the election regulator had ordered transfers of officers who were influencing voters in favour of their relatives.

He also said that instead of condemning the “terrorist” attack on the motorcade of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Lyari this past Sunday, the interim information minister had reacted in a most partial and offensive manner in the media.

“Our genuine demand for his resignation has gone unheard, and no action has been taken against the caretaker provincial minister by the ECP,” he added.

Haider said complaints regarding the provision of police protocol to the Grand Democratic Alliance’s candidates for PS-27 (Kot Diji) and the removal of the PPP’s posters by the Aabpara SHO in Islamabad are also serious matters that have been ignored.

He said that in the previous elections, the ECP had even ignored the Taliban blocking election campaigns at gunpoint.

“One hopes that this time round the ECP will ensure that the PPP’s complaints will be looked at and decided in accordance with the law.”