Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Karachi chief Naeemur Rehman on Monday said that his party would stage a protest outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) office in Islamabad on June 23 against “fake” Karachi mayoral election.
“It will be a massive protest and we will question the ECP about the polls it held in Karachi […] the ECP will have to declare the election invalid and rectify all its mistakes,” he said.
Since Murtaza Wahab was chosen as the mayor of Karachi in a contentious election last week, the JI and PPP have been at odds. As a result of their cooperation with the PML-N and JUI-F, the PPP now has a total strength of 173, while the JI has the support of 61 PTI members, bringing the total number of votes projected for Rehman to 192.
While Wahab secured all 173 expected votes, Rehman only managed to get 160 after 30 union council members abstained from the polling process. However, the JI has alleged that the provincial government had coerced the PTI members and rejected the polls.
The party also observed ‘Black Day’ on June 17 and held protests across the country.
JI’s Rehman claimed the party was considering sending a convoy of demonstrators from Karachi to the federal capital on June 23 while speaking at a press conference in Karachi today.
He argued that the PPP had “illegally held Karachi’s mandate” in order to maintain the operation of its “donkey network” and that “we can’t accept these fake and rigged elections.”
Rehman continued by stating that the ECP had totally failed to conduct free and fair elections in Karachi and questioned how the organisation would be able to conduct elections throughout the nation. “The full movie hasn’t been released; this was just a trailer.”
“How can we trust this institution to hold unbiased elections? If the ECP works as a facilitator for parties, how will democracy flourish in Pakistan?”
The JI Karachi chief vowed that his party would adopt every legal and constitutional path to bring the truth before the public.
