Pakistan: Jamaat-i-Islami to stage protest against delay in local govt polls in Karachi

Hafiz Naeem ur-Rehman raised concern over the delay in the release of local government poll results and schedule for polls on the remaining 11 seats.

The chairperson of the Karachi chapter of Jamaat-i-Islami, Hafiz Naeem ur-Rehman, has announced that the party will stage sit-ins across the metropolis to protest against the delay in the local government polls on the remaining 11 seats, Pakistan Today reported. Addressing a sit-in outside the office of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Sindh chapter, Hafiz Naeem ur-Rehman raised concern over the delay in the release of local government poll results and schedule for polls on the remaining 11 seats.

Hafiz Naeem ur-Rehman said that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has betrayed Karachi with the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) after the "regime change" in April last year, as per the Pakistan Today report. He said that despite negative tactics, Jamaat continued its Haq Do Tehreek and stressed that a large number of people participated in it. Furthermore, he said that Jamaat emerged as the biggest political party in Karachi in the recent local government elections despite flawed voter lists and delimitations. He said that the residents of Karachi want to see development in the metropolis, as per the news report.

Criticizing the Pakistan's Chief Election Commissioner, Hafiz Naeem ur-Rehman said that Sikandar Sultan Raja performed duties as the chief and bureaucrat of all three provinces, however, he is unaware about the real issues faced by the people in Karachi. On March 5, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) released the results of the Karachi local government elections. According to the results announced by ECP, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) have won equal number of union council (UC) seats, according to Pakistan Today report.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won 40 UCs, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) secured five seats and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) won one seat. The ECP had withheld the results of 20 union council seats due to complaints and recounting requests. Notably, the local body elections in Karachi and Hyderabad divisions were held on January 15. Although there are 246 UCs in Karachi, however, the election was held in 235 UCs due to the death of 11 candidates. The ECP is yet to announced the date for remaining 11 union councils in the provincial metropolis. (ANI)

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