Opposition parties are considering forming a grand alliance and a national charter to thwart rigging in local bodies elections. "The chief election commissioner (CEC) should play due role in ensuring transparent polls and withdraw cases against Hanif Abbasi and other opposition workers, besides release of all detained candidates and workers in Rawalpindi," Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) Senior Vice President Liaquat Baloch said here on Friday.
He was addressing a hurriedly called press conference along with the leaders of Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), including MNA Zamrud Khan, MPAs Rashid Naseem, Amir Fida Paracha, Ishtiaq Mirza and workers of the opposition parties.
He demanded judicial inquiry in the firing incident in UC-43, which claimed one life, besides injuring more than 11 others, saying that the police and administration is under pressure. He said Punjab Investigation AIG should be appointed as inquiry commission.
The PML administration with a federal minister and a local MPA is using this incident as an instrument against the opposition, he added. Expressing solidarity with the bereaved family, Baloch said that his death is a tragedy, but the government is using it as a tool.
Baloch said that free, fair and transparent polls under President Pervez Musharraf are not possible and time has again proved that the right to choose their representative was snatched from the people. He demanded deployment of army in sensitive areas of Rawalpindi, saying that the administration with the assistance of federal minister and an MPA is using brutal force.
Talking on the first phase of LB polls, he said that the results of the first phase of LB polls across the country were quite frustrating for the ruling alliance headed by President Musharraf and they have started using negative tactics to stop opposition candidates from campaigning in their constituencies. He said that despite using government machinery, the candidates of the ruling alliance have failed to get any support from the masses.
"They used rangers and local police to capture polling stations in 60 union councils in Karachi, but even then the results were against them," Baloch said, adding that 50 Nazims and over 1,000 elected councillors in Karachi were from the opposition parties. He said in Punjab the government used police and administration in favour of their candidates, but the results were quite frustrating.
All the opposition leaders present in press conference termed use of force against the opposition candidates in different union councils in Rawalpindi as state terrorism and demanded of the CEC to take note of the situation.
"The CEC is playing the role of a silent spectator which has encouraged the ruling party to play havoc with the opposition," they said.
They expressed their resolve to face the challenges of rigging and use of government machinery in LB polls at every fora. "We would not allow a few people to deprive the country from a real democracy," they added.
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