Results of Karachi local bodies elections were pre-planned

An interview with PTI leader Khurram Sher Zaman

KARACH:

The second phase of local bodies’ elections in Karachi were the first elections held since the Wazirabad attack on PTI Chairman Imran Khan last year and a number of politicians and political analysts expected the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to emerge as the largest party in the polls, if not largest, drawing a massive sympathy vote for their charismatic leader.

Even the leaders of Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pakistan People Party (PPP) were of the view that sympathy vote for Imran Khan could swing the results in PTI’s favor.

However, the party ended up with just 40 seats and bagged third position in the local bodies polls which, indeed, came as a surprise to one and all.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, Khurrum Sher Zaman, who was also a nominee for the mayor’s slot by the PTI, himself lost his Saddar Town seat to PPP’s Najmi Alam.

Bol News spoke to him after the polls and his views are given below:

Q. Why couldn’t PTI bag majority seats in the recent local bodies polls?

KSZ: What happened at the Karachi’s local bodies elections was pre-planned and it seems that the results were managed. That is why our party has already rejected the elections results.

Q. So what is the PTI’s future line of action from hereon?

KSZ: We have already lodged 45 complaints with the Election Commission of Pakistan about rigging and manipulation of results. We don’t expect that all of complaints would be addressed, but most of them need to be addressed seriously by the ECP because the voters of this city feel cheated.

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) too is protesting the results and are convinced that they, too, have been derived of their mandate. But the way things have gone so far,  I feel that the JI is being given preferential treatment by the ECP compared to us with regards to redressal of complaints.

Q. How was the rigging done on the election day, what are your findings?

KSZ: The PPP-led Sindh Government carried out rigging on a massive scale, using the government’s machinery. We also have ample proof of that while the netizens have also seen the various video clips of rigging done by the PPP candidates and its party workers; some clips were also played by the news channels.

The worst part is the ECP’s failure to stop the rigging and its refusal to probe it, in spite of the videos given to it. There is a lot of hue and cry being done about the rigging on various news channels while the social media is bursting with it.

The enormous amount of delays in releasing the results at various polling stations delays gives credence to reports of political engineering being done behind closed doors. Of course, the PPP has a poor electoral track record in Karachi and there is no way it could bag so many seats on merit here.

Q. Is your party looking to form an alliance with JI in the days ahead?

KSZ:  Well, first the PTI will ensure that the accuracy of the results and that the mandate of Karachiites is not stolen or manipulated. We will fight at all available forums and will not rest until we are provided justice.

As for forming an alliance with JI, if the Naeem-ur-Rehman and his party extend an offer to us to help it elect the city’s mayor, we would surely consider it but the main decision in this regard rests with the PTI leadership.