KARACHI: Naeem ur-Rehman, the chief of the Karachi wing of Jamaat-i-Islami, declared that his party would organise a protest outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) office in Islamabad on Friday to challenge the alleged use of force by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government to secure victory in the mayoral election.
Addressing a news conference in Karachi, Rehman emphasised that the protest would be of significant magnitude, aiming to hold the commission accountable for the conduct of the elections in Karachi.
He said: “We will question the ECP about the integrity of the polls it conducted in Karachi. The ECP must acknowledge the election as invalid and rectify all errors made during the process.”
Tensions have risen between Jamaat and PPP following the hard-fought election of Murtaza Wahab as the mayor of Karachi last week. The PPP had forged an alliance with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), which gave them a combined strength of 173, while Jamaat enjoyed the support of 61 members from the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), resulting in an expected vote count of 192 for its candidate Rehman.
In the election, Wahab managed to secure all 173 of the anticipated votes, whereas Rehman fell short with only 160 votes due to 30 union council members abstaining from the polling process.
However, Jamaat has alleged that the provincial government exerted pressure on PTI members and has rejected the legitimacy of the polls.
In response to their grievances, Jamaat observed a so-called black day on June 17 and staged protests across the country, highlighting their discontent with the election results and alleging foul play by the provincial government.
During the news conference, Rehman revealed that the party is considering organising a convoy of protesters from Karachi to the federal capital.
Expressing strong disapproval of what he referred to as “fake and rigged elections,” Rehman firmly asserted that the PPP had unlawfully seized Karachi’s mandate to sustain its “donkey network” of influence.
He further criticized the ECP, asserting that it had failed to conduct free and fair elections in Karachi. He questioned the ECP’s ability to carry out future elections across the country, suggesting that the recent events in Karachi were just a glimpse of a larger issue.
He raised concerns about the institution’s impartiality, emphasizing the need for unbiased elections to foster democracy in Pakistan.
Rehman pledged that his party would employ all legal and constitutional means to uncover the truth and present it to the public. He expressed that if the elections had been conducted fairly, his party would have accepted the results without hesitation.
However, the alleged rigging is not something they will accept under any circumstances.
Rehman also issued a warning, stating that he would not allow the PPP to interfere in the ongoing development work taking place in Jamaat’s union councils.
