A four-party ‘right-wing’ electoral alliance on Monday demanded the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) call in the Pakistan Army to take control of the violence-hit port city of Karachi ahead of the May 11 polls.
The army, they said, would need to stay here until the electoral process was completed.
“We need the army deployment at polling stations in the city to ensure peaceful holding of election,” was the joint demand of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the PML-N, the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) and the JUI-F at a joint press conference held here at the JI’s head office.
All the political parties leaning towards the right agreed on holding elections after deployment of the army at all polling stations. They said there were just 10 days left in the elections but the situation in the city was deteriorating day by day, which the army alone could control.
They accused the fresh alliance of the former coalition partners, the PPP, the MQM and the ANP, for the deteriorating peace in the metropolis.
“Ahead of the polls, the electoral process is being sabotaged through bomb blasts, torching of election offices of political parties and kidnapping of political workers to torture them on a larger scale,” said JI Karachi leader Muhammad Hussain Mehanti.
“Postponement of elections is the wish and agenda of external forcers and unfortunately some anti-Pakistan elements are playing are helping them,” he said, adding that the incessant bomb blasts were a conspiracy to delay the polls.
Mehanti said the terrorists were transporting bombs from one part of the country to another but the law enforcement agencies were not doing anything to stop them.
He appealed to the chief election commissioner to call in the army to take over the city until the holding of the elections and urged the ECP to write a letter to the armed forces to salvage Karachi from terror.
“Karachi must be declared ‘sensitive’ for holding of peaceful, fair and transparent elections and stationing of army personal at each and every polling booth must be ordered,” he demanded.
Crying foul, Mehanati said his party’s workers had been targeted and his party’s flags and election banners were forcefully being removed in several parts of the city.
“The three-party alliance is dividing the city by accusing the right-wing political parties for violence against them,” he alleged.
PML-N General Secretary Saleem Zia said the ECP should impose its own rules for elections campaigns in the Defence Housing Authority’s residential phases where election campaigns were not allowed.
“The DHA bans promotional election drive by political parties in its all eight phases as no election banners, posters, party flags and corner meetings are allowed there,” he said.
He demanded the ECP impose its rules and constitutional requirements for polls also in NA-250, adding that it was not possible for political parties to carry out a door-to-door campaign.
The chief of JUI-F Karachi chapter, Qari Muhammad Usman said, “There were just 10 days left in the election,” and demanded the ECP ask the army to take over the city to help hold polls, independently and peacefully.
He said the last blast at the ANP’s political gathering in the city’s outskirt – Mominabad – had killed none of the party’s workers but all were innocent citizens. He alleged that neither the government nor the ANP had inquired after the victims, adding that the ECP’s role seemed “suspicious” at present.
Head of the JUP, Owais Noorani said, “The three left-wing party alliance is known for its role in worsening law and order in the city,” and urged the public to return to right-wing parties who supported peace in prosperity in the city.
He hoped that the ECP would accept their demands laid by the four-party alliance.