JI, ANP decide to boycott by-polls in Karachi

The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Awami National Party (ANP) on Sunday decided to boycott the upcoming by-elections in Karachi.
The JI, ANP finalised for not taking part in upcoming by-election in Karachi while candidates of other political parties including the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) have not started their electoral campaigns until yet, sources said.
Moreover, MQM chief Altaf Hussain has ordered to cancel all of their mass meeting in different constituencies of Sindh until tomorrow in which he has to address the public regarding by-election campaign.
Earlier, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced for the deployment of Pakistan Army personnel on all polling stations of Karachi for holding free and fair by-election in constituencies.
ECP ordered on Sunday for conducting the electoral event completely under supervision of Pakistan Army as the troops were present inside and outside the polling station.
However, two political parties including JI, ANP boycotted election while three other parties showed no movement in the constituencies by their electoral campaigns.
Separately, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) postponed its election rallies scheduled for Sunday.
According to a statement issued by the party’s decision-making body, the rallies in Karachi and Mirpurkhas have been postponed until Monday.
Ameenul Haq, a coordination committee member of the MQM, said that time and venue of the rallies in both the cities would remain unchanged.
The party planned the rallies in connection with the by-polls to be held on August 22.
Meanwhile, election campaign has increased which was slow before Eid.
The election campaign of PMLN candidate Ashraf Gujjar is in full swing.
He is focusing on his election campaign on rural as well as urban areas of the capital.
NA-48 comprises of 75 percent of urban and 25 of rural area.
In city area more than 20 labour unions, including CDA Mazdoor Union, PWD Union, Ikhbar Faroosh Union, Teachers Association, Traders, Lawyers, and general public supporting him while in rural area his own Gujjar tribe and others notable tribes were also supporting him.
Yesterday Jalsa of Tarnol witnessed thousands of people have participated and the leadership of PMLN, MNA Hamza Shahbaz, Malik Abrar, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry Anjum Aqeel and others attended the public meeting.
Though the battle for NA-48 is between two rival political parties, PML-N and PTI, but another interesting nuance of this by-election is the contest between a lawyer and economist, Muhammad Ashraf Gujjar and Asad Umer, correspondingly.
There are some others candidates, who are contesting this by-election from Islamabad including famous former Zardari aide and PPP candidate Faisal Sakhi Butt, but the genuine contest is between two candidates and that are the PML-N and PTI.
For Ashraf Gujjar, a bonus vote that will be cast to him is the vote of the Christian community and the slums areas which all have decided to cast their votes to PML-N on the directions of Julius Salik, a renowned minorities’ leader. Salik got more than 5000 votes in the general election as he contested as an independent candidate from this consistency.
Recently after taking oath as the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif constituted a committee on the CDA and Gujjar is the member of this committee.
Gujjar is well-known figure of Islamabad. He has been residing in Islamabad since 1960; he was educated from Islamabad Model Colleges for Boys.