The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Tehreek-e-Insaaf and Jamaat-e-Islami on Thursday demanded the removal of Sindh election commissioner in order to ensure free and fair implementation of the Supreme Court’s orders on preparation of error-free voters’ lists in Karachi.
The SC on Wednesday ordered the ECP to conduct a door-to-door verification of electoral rolls in Karachi with assistance of the army and Frontier Constabulary. Political parties complain that votes of up to three million people living in Karachi had been registered in their native towns of Swat, Mingora, Mansehra and Attock and other areas, despite them residing in the city for 10 to 15 years.
Reports said delegations of the three political parties separately called on Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (r) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim and conveyed their reservations over the role of Sindh Election Commissioner Sono Khan Baloch.
The leaders submitted applications demanding removal of Baloch from office in order to ensure transparent work on correction of electoral rolls and delimitation in Karachi. Speaking to a private TV channel, PML-N’s Irfanullah Marwat said the court orders could not be implemented without removing the provincial election commissioner. Jamaat-e-Islami’s Muhammad Hussain Mehnti said the court’s order “is an ample proof of Sono Baloch’s involvement in pre-poll rigging”. The Supreme Court had also directed the ECP to find out how many votes have been registered on the same addresses and how many people had applied for shifting their votes outside Karachi and how many of them were de-listed or transferred back to their native towns.
ECP to ‘implement SC’s decision in letter and spirit’
Chief Election Commissioner Justice (r) Fakharuddin G Ibrahim on Thursday said the order of Supreme Court in connection with the verification of voter lists and delimitation of constituencies in Karachi will be implemented in letter and spirit. The CEC held separate meetings with the representatives of various political and religious parties at the provincial election commission office. The delegations include Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Awami National Party (ANP), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F). The CEC said the election commission had started preparing a strategy in the light of the Supreme Court’s decisions regarding verification of voters’ lists and delimitation of various constituencies. He hoped that the work in this regard would be started next week.
