LAHORE: A large number of activists belonging to Pakistan Peoples Party Workers (PPP-W) on Thursday staged a protest demonstration in front of the office of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against the alleged violations of the code of conduct and non-verification of more than 29, 000 votes in the NA-120 by-poll.
PPP-W leadership demanded resignation from all the members of the ECP, in regards to their sheer failure for rendering their duties. They said that the ECP has failed to conduct a fair and transparent by-poll in NA-120 and now it is juvenile to expect that the same incompetent election commission to successfully and transparently hold general elections.
Naheed Khan, PPP-W President Dr Safdar Abbasi, contesting candidate Sajida Mir and a large number of the party’s workers gathered in front of the ECP office and raised slogans against the alleged role of its members in support of the ruling party’s candidate Kulsoom Nawaz, the wife of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Talking to the media, Naheed Khan and Dr Safdar Abbasi said that the election commission had terribly failed to compel the political parties to follow its codes of conduct and this failure has raised a question mark on its performance as well as its existence.
They said that the ruling party’s ministers are using all the available resources of the government and administrative machinery to maneuver the results in the favour of their candidate and conducting rallies in sheer violation of the code of conduct of the election commission. They said under such circumstances, it is now inevitable that all the ECP members step down from their seats and all the political and religious parties in and outside the parliament should set up a new election commission which will be independent and powerful.
They also said that they have serious concerns about the non-verification of 29,000 votes in the NA-120 constituency but the election commission is not taking this issue seriously.