An All Parties Conference (APC) organised by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) here on Monday demanded re-polling in all constituencies of Karachi under the 'complete' supervision of army. A joint declaration of the APC urged the national institutions to make efforts to eliminate targeted killings, extortions and other crimes from the city.
It urges the institutions to disarm the armed wings of different political parties and arrest the terrorists involved in crimes such as targeted killings and extortion. It demands for immediate holding of census in the country. It says the voters' lists should be recompiled, besides urging the Supreme Court to take action against the "elements" behind election rigging. It says the election commission should increase the number of election tribunals and include sitting judges in them.
"Election Commission should start verification of votes through thumb impression with the help of NADRA and it should be started from Karachi and in all those constituencies, where complaints of rigging reports have been received," it added. Leaders of all the political parties were of the view that worse kind of rigging took place in Karachi during the elections 2013. The political parties unanimously declared the performance of ECP in the recent elections very disappointing.
The APC was chaired by Vice Chairman PTI Shah Mehmood Qureshi and attended by Taj Haider of PPP, Muhammad Hussain Mehanti of Jamaat-i-Islami, Nihal Hashmi of PML-N, Haleem Adil Sheikh of PML-Q, Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah of Sindh United Party, Jam Madad Ali of Muslim League-Functional, Mufti Usman Yar Khan of JUI-S, Shamshad Qureshi of Mohajir Qaumi Movement, Owais Norani of JUP, Yusuf Masti Khan of National Workers Party, Allama Sadiq Raza Taqva of Majlis-e-Wehdatul Muslimeen, Matloob Awan of Sunni Tehreek, Arif Alvi and Nadir Akmal Laghari of PTI.
Addressing the conference‚ Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that free and fair election was the demand and need of all political parties. He said that a positive change has been noticed in the wake of the general elections of May 11 and for the first time a large number of young voters have cast their votes.
He said that after the general elections of 1970, very high turnout of nearly 55 percent was recorded in the recent elections. The high turnout shows that now the people are much aware of their rights and need change in the country, he added. Qureshi said that peace can't be restored in the Karachi without taking action against the armed groups of different political parties and depoliticizing police.
He said that all parties had agreed on one point that elections were completely rigged and ECP failed to hold free and fair elections. Taj Haider said that some 522 workers of PPP had been killed during the last five years. "Although, we have some reservation on these elections, but our party has accepted the results for the continuity of the democratic system in the country," he added.
Muhammad Hussain Mehanti said that Karachi elections were completely rigged by a political party. Before election, ECP assured that every possible step would be taken for holding of fair and free elections, however on the day of polling the situation was against these assurances, he added.
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