ANP compiles evidence of poll-rigging in city for judicial commission

Karachi
With the Awami National Party’s announcement of becoming a party in the judicial commission formed to probe the alleged irregularities in the last general elections, its Sindh chapter has compiled evidence of poll-rigging in Karachi.
ANP provincial and district leaders, in a meeting held on April 12 at the Mardan House, had submitted the proofs of rigging to provincial president Senator Shahi Syed, who will hand it over to party’s central leadership.
The party has formed a committee headed by prominent lawyer Latif Afridi, who will present the evidence before the judicial commission
Syed said ANP leaders were continuously being targeted and restricted to their homes during the last general elections in Karachi and could not launch a proper campaign because of the threats they faced from terrorists.
“On election day, other parties were busy counting their votes and ANP leaders were counting the bodies of their murdered activists and supporters,” Syed told The News.
He said the party had also compiled a list of phone numbers from which their members had received threat calls.
“Fakhruddin G Ebrahim was the chief election commissioner for the entire country,” he said. “But for the ANP, Hakimullah Mehsud was the chief election commissioner.”
The ANP had won two Sindh assembly seats in Karachi’s Pashtun-populated constituencies - PS-93 SITE and PS-128 Landhi - with the support of the Pakistan People’s Party.

Attacks on ANP
Before the general polls, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had vowed to disrupt the polls and target the ANP, the PPP and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement because they are secular parties.
However, the ANP said militants belonging to the TTP Swat chapter had only targeted its party leaders in the last general polls.
Several rallies of ANP candidates in different parts of the city were attacked at the time of the elections and dozens of party activists were killed and injured.
Sadiq Zaman Khattak, the ANP candidate for NA-254 Korangi, and his six-year son were killed on May 3, 2013 in an attack near his home in Bilal Colony in Korangi.
On May 11, the election day, a rally of Amanullah Mehsud, the ANP candidate for PS-128, was targeted using a bomb planted in a rickshaw near his office in the Dawood Chali area in Landhi. Several party activists were killed in the attack.
Similarly, an election campaign meeting of Bashir Jan, the party’s candidate for PS-93, was targeted in Orangi Town. Jan had narrowly escaped but 11 party activists were killed.
The same day, Abdul Rehman Khan, the ANP candidate for NA-255 Landhi, had survived a bomb attack in Muzaffarabad Colony, Landhi.
Party leaders claimed that around 80 leaders and office-bearers of the ANP had been killed by the Taliban.
As a result, ANP offices across the city, including the Baacha Khan Markaz, the party’s provincial headquarters in Peerabad, were shut down.
Besides, several party leaders left Karachi and migrated to their native towns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa because of the threats they faced from the Taliban.