Government, ECP fail to hold transparent LG polls: PAT

Rejecting the results of local bodies polls, the senior PAT leaders have said that the ruling PML-N committed massive rigging in collusion with the police and the Election Commission personnel. They said that the Punjab government and the Election Commission failed to hold fair, free and transparent elections despite passage of eight years. They said that the silence of the Election Commission in spite of irrefutable evidence of torture and rigging has rendered the whole electoral process suspect. They said that every union council of Punjab presented a scene of war zone. They said that the people were deprived of their democratic right to vote by transferring thousands of votes to other constituencies. The Returning Officers and police played a second fiddle to the government yet again in the local government polls.

These views were expressed by PAT Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur, Chief Coordinator Major (r ) Muhammad Saeed, and the central Secretary Information Nooruallah Siddiqui while talking to media men in the central secretariat here today.

The PAT leaders strongly condemned the act of torture on the PAT workers by MPA Asif Nakai in the union council 96 of Kasur. They said that they would register an FIR against the MPA over his hooliganism. They said that Pakistan is not a property of anyone where a poor man cannot contest elections. They said that the PAT will issue a white paper on the electoral rigging and expose the rulers.

Speaking on the occasion, Khurram Nawaz Gandapur said that the rulers have broken all record of rigging. He said that wrong electoral signs of the PAT candidates were printed on the ballot papers in Lodhran. Likewise, the name of the party’s candidate was deleted from the voters list in UC 158 in Faisalabad. He said that our workers were tortured in Okara, adding that the RO disqualified our strongest candidate in the name of change in papers in Bhakar. He said that the vote of GM Malik, senior MQI leader who has been living in Township for 35 years, was transferred to Ghosia colony and resultantly his family was deprived of their democratic right to vote for the first time. He said that hundreds of such complaints are being received from across the Punjab. He said that there was a discrepancy between lists provided to the opposition candidates and those made available at the polling stations. He said that the private transporters whose services were hired by the opposition candidates were harassed through police.

Major (r ) Muhammad Saeed said that the workers of Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri will not be disheartened by rigging of the PML-N. He said that PAT struggle against oppressive system will pick up even more pace than before. He said that such elections will fail to bring about change. He said that had the Election Commission and the police not been supporting the ruling party, the 75% of its candidates would have had their security deposits forfeited. He said that it was better that the Chief Minister would have issued a ticket of the union council to every SHO instead of going through the motion of elections. He said that the Model Town police played a brazen role yet again to make the candidates of the ruling party win.

PAT Secretary Information Noorullah Siddiqui expressed his deep sense of grief and sorrow on the loss of human lives as result of clash between political parties in Khairpur. He said that time has come that this rigged system should be reformed now and police and other institutions purged of politics. He said that unless real representatives elected by the masses in fair, free and transparent elections reach the constitutional offices, there is no way change can come about with the result that the people will continue to remain deprived of fruits of democracy.