Pakistan Therek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday called for re-election on all Karachi constituencies under army supervision. Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club, PTI leader and candidate for NA-250 Arif Alvi alleged that Karachi was completely held hostage on the polling day for "preplanned rigging".
He said that for the past two months, PTI had been demanding deployment of Army inside polling stations for holding free and fair elections, but the Election Commission did not consider PTI's demand, adding that this had now resulted in massive rigging in Karachi elections. "It seems that in the current situation, the Election Commission, Rangers and police are also helpless," he said. Reiterating the demand for holding re-polling in all of Karachi, Alvi said: "The electoral process in other parts of the country has now almost completed and the Election Commission is free and can mange election in Karachi in a proper manner with better management by hiring federal government staff as well as Pakistan Army, which should be deployed inside and out side of polling stations."
Accusing Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) of directly being involved in rigging, he said that most of the staff for election duty was acquired from Karachi city government and all of them are diehard workers of MQM. "When the polling staff is not neutral, how can the elections be transparent?" he questioned.
He said the people in Karachi fully supported PTI and it will not give a walk over to any group. "We will prefer to contest election in the Karachi, instead of boycott like Jamaat-i-Islami," he said. Alvi said that voting in several stations in NA-250 had not started on time and media has highlighted all these issues. "We are unable to understand why the Election Commission is not taking any action despite media reports that election is being rigged in Karachi," he said. According to him, as many as 180 polling stations had been established in NA-250, but till 1pm, polling did not begin in 20 polling stations mainly located in the Defence area because the absence of polling staff and material.
Zubair Khan also accused MQM of rigging elections in Karachi and said that most polling stations in the city had been occupied by MQM workers. "It seems that the Election Commission has failed to hold free and transparent elections in the country's largest city," he added. Ashraf Qureshi, the PTI candidate for NA-253 and Ali Zaidi, the candidate for NA-252, also attended the press conference.
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