PPP repeats demand for stronghold Lyari’s Form-45

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has repeated its demand for Form-45 of the National Assembly constituency NA-246 (South-I), which comprises the party’s stronghold Lyari and where PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari finished runner-up this general election.

Form-45, which lists details of ballots cast at every polling station within a constituency, is an important document, and the persistent demand for it follows the claims of rigging in last week’s polls.

Addressing a news conference on Thursday, PPP Central Information Secretary Dr Nafisa Shah lamented that Bilawal was stopped from electioneering ahead of the elections. She said the party chief’s campaign was well-organised.

Dr Nafisa said that in an unprecedented move, returning officers (ROs) and district returning officers (DROs) in Sindh were changed after notifications for their appointments were issued.

She accused the caretaker provincial government of taking such an action on the demand of the anti-PPP Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA). She said the interim administration removed the GDA’s reservations on the polls, but the PPP’s similar complaints remain ignored.

The PPP leader said that in such a situation, the GDA does not have any moral and valid cause to protest its defeat in the elections, and that the electioneering environment created ahead of the polls suited the alliance well.

She said the provincial and district administrations favour the GDA, which comprises politicians who have always lost in general elections, adding that former chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim’s politicking has always been backed by the Establishment. “[GDA chief] Pir Pagara has openly said he has been politicking on someone’s directions.”

Dr Nafisa said her party will not allow anyone to destabilise Sindh for the sake of protesting against unfavourable election results, adding that despite having serious reservations over the results, the PPP has decided to sit in Parliament for the sake of democracy.  

Results rejected

Rejecting the election results, a meeting chaired by PPP Karachi President Saeed Ghani agreed that the polls were rigged as well as replete with coercion and threats to the party’s activists and polling agents.

They agreed that undemocratic forces, with the connivance of all the relevant stakeholders, including the Election Commission of Pakistan and the polling staff, influenced the results.

The PPP leaders said an organised conspiracy was hatched to steal the electoral mandate of Karachi’s people, adding that after freeing the city from the clutches of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, it has deliberately been handed over to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

They said the PPP’s polling agents were not issued Form-45, adding that those who refused to leave without it were made to wait until the next morning. They claimed that the ballots cast against the PTI’s candidates were deliberately destroyed.

The meeting said the PPP’s workers and supporters in Lyari faced warnings of dire consequences whenever they tried to open an election office or hold a corner meeting anywhere in NA-246. They claimed that the whereabouts of some PPP activists remain unknown.

The PPP leaders expressed surprise that the PTI’s candidates won with a margin of several thousands of votes from such constituencies where they had even failed to arrange sufficient polling agents. They claimed that bogus voting was conducted in the city on July 25 in favour of the PTI.  

GDA to protest

The GDA has announced that it would stage a peaceful protest demonstration in every district of the province on Friday (today) against alleged widespread rigging in the general elections in Sindh in favour of the PPP. A statement issued by GDA General Secretary Ayaz Latif Palejo demanded re-election in the province to ensure fairness, transparency and impartiality in the polling process.