KARACHI: Jamat-e-Islami (JI) has announced to stage countrywide protests today (Tuesday) against, what it called, tampering of results and rigging in Karachi Local Government elections held on January 15 (Sunday).
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Announcing the series of protests, JI Chief Sirajul Haq said in a statement “currently, JI has emerged as the leading party during the local body elections,” adding that delay in reporting the result by the Election Commission of Pakistan had spurred doubts. “Not only the JI, but other parties have also suffered due the result,” he said.
Also read: PTI rejects Karachi LG polls results, accuses ECP of directly involved in rigging
He said that the results shown by party’s polling agents clearly show that JI has secured the majority.
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“We believe that the election results of JI as well as other political parties have been altered. I appeal to the masses and workers to stage protests in major cities of the country,” he added.
Siraj has also called an emergency meeting of the party on Tuesday in which future strategy about the local body elections in Karachi would be discussed.
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Meanwhile, the Chief of JI Karachi Chapter Hafiz Naeemur Rehman claimed that election results were being changed due to rigging and that the party was not provided Forms 11 and 12. He added that the deputy commissioner had called for a recount.
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Rehman said that if the results were tampered with, he would stage a sit-in against the theft of Karachi’s mandate.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) last evening finally announced the results of all 235 seats of Karachi division. According to the results, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has emerged victorious with 93 seats while JI managed to secure 86.
Also read: PPP claims lead in Hyderabad as controversies mar Sindh LG polls
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) could only manage 40 seats while Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) got seven.
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