karachi: Following a clash in Malir during the polling for NA-237 in which Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Karachi President and MPA Bilal Ghaffar was reportedly injured, leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and PTI traded accused each other of trying to disrupt the polling process.
Addressing a press conference, PTI Sindh President and former federal minister Ali Haider Zaidi said the people had observed what happened in NA-237 and how the PPP workers attempted to assassinate Ghaffar.
He said the attack was carried out by PPP MPAs Salim Baloch and Salman Murad. He claimed that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had issued three letters after taking notice of irregularities and law and order issues during the polling.
“Our people did not go inside the polling stations. We had won this seat that Hakeem Baloch considered his ancestral constituency. If he has to rig his home seat, it means that public support is not with him and this is why we were talking about electronic voting machines,” Zaidi said.
The PTI leader said that the PPP had been employing such rigging tactics in Sindh for the last 15 years.
Meanwhile, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon accused the PTI of resorting to brazen hooliganism in the by-elections held in two constituencies in Karachi on Sunday.
In a statement, he said legislators belonging to the PTI along with armed anti-social elements resorted to hooliganism at various polling stations in the city.
He alleged that the PTI threatened and frightened voters through violent means.
Memon lamented that the code of conduct issued by the ECP was brazenly violated during the by-polls in Karachi by the PTI that held processions of motor vehicles to harass the polling staff.
The information minister lamented that no authority had taken cogniance of such brazen violations of the ECP’s code of conduct. He appealed to the Election Commission to take notice of the rowdy conduct of the PTI during the polling.
He alleged that the PTI also committed the excess of harassing voters during the by-elections. “Imran Khan has resorted to such violent tactics after sensing his impending electoral defeat,” he said.
Separately in a media talk, PTI leader and for Sindh governor Imran Ismail alleged that the PPP had rigged the Malir by-poll where PTI Chairman Imran Khan was winning like other constituency.
He said the NA-239 election had signalled the disappearance of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan from the electoral landscape of the city. He added that the people of Karachi were not willing to vote for the MQM-P and the party was in severe pressure which could be seen from its changing stances every not and then.
He remarked that the MQM now stood for the ‘Majboor Qaumi Movement’. He added that the MQM-P had no other option but to retain its ministries and stay in the coalition government.
The MQM-P had lost the ground to the PTI in Karachi and now there was no rival of the PTI in the city, the former governor said.
He explained that the PTI would not go to the National Assembly even after winning by-polls. He reiterated the PTI’s demand for fresh elections in the country.
RAWALPINDI: Faisal Chaudhry, the lawyer of incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, was engaged...
LAHORE: Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari has said the person in whose name the PTI founder wrote a letter has...
karachi: A petition has been filed with the Sindh High Court (SHC) against recent amendments to the Prevention of...
ISLAMABAD: Muhammad Yasin Azad was elected as Chairman Executive Committee of Pakistan Bar Council (PBC).Azad was...
karachi: The Sachal police arrested 12 suspects involved in an attack on a polio team the Gulzar-e-Hijri area of the...
karachi: The Sindh government, in a notification issued on Thursday, announced a holiday for all educational...
PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Sheikh Waqas Akram said on Thursday that the tenure of Chief Election...
PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday sought replies from the federal government and the relevant...