PTI takes credit for low voter turnout

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Sindh President Ali Zaidi claimed on Friday that the voter turnout at the NA-240 by-election a day earlier was less than expected due to his party’s boycott of the poll.

“The results of the NA-240 by-election proved that where the PTI doesn’t participate, the people don’t go out to vote,” said Zaidi while addressing a news conference at the Insaf House. He accused the election commission of completely failing to hold a clean and transparent poll. “If electronic voting machines had been used, the election would’ve been clean and transparent.”

He said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leadership had rejected the results of the census conducted in 2017 during the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government (PML-N), adding that the PTI was working on conducting a new census using technology. “How was the local government election announced without a census?” Zaidi said the Supreme Court had ordered holding LG polls under Article 140A, so it would be contempt of court to hold the elections ignoring the orders of the country’s top court.

He congratulated the nation on the final report of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), saying that the PTI government had made efforts to get Pakistan off the FATF grey list. “The PML-N had put Pakistan on the grey list of the FATF, and the PTI has removed it.”

‘PTI fled election’

Responding to Zaidi’s news conference, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon said the PTI had fled the NA-240 by-poll, adding that the party had even failed to find a candidate to field after predicting their worst defeat in the election, adds News Desk.

Memon said that bullying and levelling allegations against political opponents has become a habit of PTI leaders, while they keep trying to sell their lies as truth. He said that except the PPP, no other party can hold a real and a democratic people’s long march because it is the only true representative political party of the people.

He also said PTI leaders are in a hurry to take credit for Pakistan getting off of the FATF’s grey list, issuing hasty statements and positing on social media without considering diplomatic norms.

He added that friendly and neighbouring countries had remained annoyed with Pakistan due to the PTI leaders’ foolishnesses and undiplomatic conduct during their government, causing Pakistan’s isolation from the rest of the world.

He opined that the untiring efforts of the coalition government and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari are paying off. He said that diplomatic etiquettes and norms should have been followed, and the PTI should have waited for the FATF’s official announcement.

‘Imposing TLP on city’

Addressing a news conference at the party’s secretariat, Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chief Mustafa Kamal said that after imposing the PTI on Karachi through a conspiracy in the 2018 general elections, efforts are afoot to impose “militant” outfits such as the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) on the city.

“But the PSP won’t let the conspiracy to impose political parties with no roots in Karachi succeed,” said Kamal, claiming that the TLP has been given the licence to kill after unbanning it. “I was fired at by TLP militants during the NA-240 by-poll.”

Rejecting the election results and declaring the by-poll a total fraud, he said that the poor performance of the election commission, police and other law enforcement agencies has been exposed.

He also said that neither the PSP nor the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has been given the city’s mandate. “With a lead of only 65 votes, a sword has been left hanging over the MQM-P’s head.”

Over 200 arrested

More than 200 suspects have been arrested and several cases have been registered in connection with the violence that erupted during the NA-240 by-election. Police said that four cases have been registered: three at the Landhi police station and one at the Korangi police station.

Kamal is also nominated in one of the cases registered at the Landhi police station for “causing chaos while entering a polling station in Landhi No. 6 accompanied by 50 to 60 men”. Another FIR was registered over the killing of 65-year-old Saifullah after “TLP men opened fire on PSP workers”. However, some others were also wounded when “PSP workers retaliated”.

The third FIR was registered under the Anti-Terrorism Act on the complaint of the presiding officer, who said that 400 to 500 people of a political party entered a polling station all at once to beat up the staff and damage voting materials. The fourth case registered by the state at the Korangi police station pertains to the riots that had broken out between rival political workers during the NA-240 by-election.