Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan workers on Thursday staged a demonstration against alleged rigging in the general elections 2018 in front of the office of provincial Election Commission. The demonstrators also raised slogans to mark solidarity with the party leadership. They lamented the electoral frauds, saying it was tantamount to rob Karachi of its mandate.
"Rigging in the polls was done scientifically to deprive MQM of its mandate," Deputy Convener Amir Khan said, speaking to the protesters. Without naming Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), Amir Khan noted that Karachiites dumped a paratrooper party which had claimed to eliminate MQM-P from electoral politics of the port city. He said MQM-P managed to win six national assembly seats, which is its big achievement, despite gerrymandering.
Dr. Farooq Sattar reiterated that elections 2018 were unfair and non-transparent in Urban Sindh, accusing the ECP of post-poll rigging to deprive his party of its mandate. "First, the urban centres of the province were subjected to injustice in the census when their population was showed lower than their actual numbers and now the votes polled in favour of MQM candidates were not counted," he said, rejecting results as 'selection.'
After the demonstration, a four-member delegation of the party led by Deputy Convener Kunwar Naveed Jamil and comprised of Abdul Haseeb, Sheikh Salahuddin and Mahfooz Yar Khan presented a memorandum to provincial officials of ECP. The memorandum contained their concerns over rigging in various constituencies during the vote count after the polling. They demanded ECP to recount votes of all the constituencies in Karachi in the presence of polling agents of contesting parties and candidates. They also demanded the forensic audit and verification of thumbs of the voters and urged that final official results should be withheld till the process is completed.