Political parties hold protest demonstrations against alleged rigging

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HYDERABAD, PAKISTAN, AUG 03: Activists of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal are holding protest rally against rigging in General Election 2018, at Hyderabad press club on Friday, August 03, 2018. (Sajjad Zaidi/PPI Images).

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and other allied parties marched on the streets of various cities and areas of Sindh the other day to record their protest against the results of the 2018 general elections.

The supporters of Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-N), Pakistan People’s Party-Workers (PPP-W), Qaumi Awami Tehreek and MMA among other parties participated in the demonstration.

Their leaders of various political parties accused that the elections were massively rigged, terming the process ‘selection’ in the guise of an election.

“The people of Sindh have vociferously rejected the rigged elections through their protests across the province,” asserted GDA General Secretary Ayaz Latif Palijo while addressing protestors in Hyderabad. “The people will not accept the Sindh Assembly whose members have been elected through rigging.”

He alleged that PPP emerged as the leading party as a result of political engineering. Palijo urged the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan to take notice of the rampant manipulation. “The GDA demands fresh elections in Sindh,” he said. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) have given a free hand to the PPP’s leaders who are charged in several corruption cases.

“The army chief, chief justice and chief election commissioner had assured that the election will be fair and transparent. But all of them failed,” alleged PPP-W leader Naheed Khan.

MMA Hyderabad President Hafiz Tahir Majeed said that the announcement of the election result was deliberately delayed to pave way for the victory of a particular party. “If selection had to take place then why did Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) waste Rs20 billion over the election process?” he questioned.

Meanwhile, the GDA leadership and hundreds of its party workers and supporters condemned the results in a protest outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC).

They said they will carry out a movement across the province if their demands were not met.

The GDA leadership demanded the resignation of the election commissioner and the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo moto action while protesting outside KPC on Friday.

In Larkana, MMA’s candidate for the NA-200 seat, Soomro, alleged that his mandate was stolen by the ECP by giving artificial victory to another party’s candidate.