Army’s assistance sought in voter lists verification

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim on Monday assured the leaders of opposition parties, who are holding a sit-in in front of Sindh Election Commission (EC) office that the upcoming elections would be free and fair, and all doors of rigging will be closed down.
The political leaders had been protesting in front of the EC office for not carrying out delimitation in Karachi and failing to make the process of voter lists verification more transparent.
The CEC was talking to the participants, including leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) and Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazlur Rehman (JUI-F), namely Muhammad Hussain Mehnati, Saleem Raza, Mazhar Rahuja, Mustaqim Norani Qari Usman and others.
The CEC invited the protesting leaders to his office for negotiations.
On the occasion, the political leaders said that the EC was not following the orders of the Supreme Court (SC) regarding delimitation and fair verification of voter lists in Karachi. They also criticised the statement of the CEC that said that there was no possibility of delimitation in Karachi before the election. The protesting opposition leaders said that a certain political party had hijacked the process of verification of voter lists in Karachi.
The CEC assured them that the verification of the voter lists in Karachi would be carried out under the army’s supervision and said that the EC had contacted high officials of the army with a request to deploy more soldiers in the metropolis to complete the verification process at the earliest.
Afaq demands re-verification of voter lists: Mohajir Qaumi Movement Pakistan President Afaq Ahmed here on Monday submitted a letter to the Election Commission (EC) Sindh Provincial Officer Mahboob Alam, expressing concern over ongoing process to rectify the distorted voter’s list in Karachi.
After submission of the letter, Afaq told media persons in ECP office that there would be no chance of free, fair and transparent election under the sitting Sindh governor, who he alleged was a patron of culprits in Karachi. He said the ECP should verify the voter lists in Karachi according to the Supreme Court (SC) order.
Afaq further said that Mahboob Alam had ensured that the ECP would re-verify 10 percent of the verified votes and if any hints of rigging were found, it would verify the whole lists again.
To a question, Ahmed said, “Mohajir Qaumi Movement Pakistan will participate in the upcoming election.” At the same time, he said that their party workers were still hiding and their lives were in danger, which was stopping them from carrying out their activities in the metropolis. He said thousands of people had been killed in Karachi in incidences of target killings, but no culprits were arrested so far by the security agencies.
He also said that he visited the ECP office on Monday to inform them about the reservations of Mohajir Qaumi Movement Pakistan over the voter lists verification process.