Efforts being made to keep Karachiites from voting: Sattar

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Farooq Sattar has alleged that efforts are being made to keep the residents of Karachi from voting in the upcoming General Election 2018, Geo News reported on Saturday.

Addressing a press conference, the politician claimed that the recently conducted population census in Karachi and Hyderabad was fraudulent.

Furthermore, the MQM-P leader said that the authorities had continued to arrest his party’s workers, adding that raids were also yet to stop.

“We are concerned about the atmosphere of fear that has been created for [our] workers,” he stated. “We want to know why are these unjustified arrests being made? Why are raids being contacted?”

The MQM-P leader, who recently set aside differences with the Bahadurabad group to contest elections under the same election symbol of kite, alleged that the part workers and voters were unable to “freely participate” in the election process. “Karachi’s population was listed as less than half of the actual number in the census result,” he complained. “The arrests of our workers are indicators of pre-poll rigging.”

Sattar further said that it seemed like a few political parties were “favourites”.

“You will only see banners of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and other parties in Karachi. Our banners have been removed from different parts of the city,” he said.

‘Nawaz didn’t change NAB laws’

Responding to a question about Friday’s verdict of an accountability court that handed out fines and prison sentences to ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif and some of his family members n the Avenfield Properties corruption reference, Sattar said that it was regrettable for the political community that leaders of parties were being declared guilty.

“Whatever is the allegation, legal proceedings were made in the Panama Leaks case on the instructions of the Supreme Court.”

He further said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law and court were a system that, despite promises made by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), was not amended in the past five years.

“Nawaz had promised he would made amendments to the NAB law but he did nothing in the past five years,” said Sattar.

He further said that all cases should be based on justice, and cases against individuals should be initiated on the basis of proper evidence.