KARACHI, 8 July — The pro-Nawaz Sharif faction of the Muslim League charged the administration yesterday with manipulating the local government election results to suit the parties supporting the military government of Pervez Musharraf, and threatened to challenge these in a court of law.
It alleged that the results for some 450 seats of councilors had been changed in Karachi. None of the candidates was supplied the count list, required under the law, it said. The results were announced verbally which was a violation of the election norms, said the former National Assembly member from Karachi, Ejaz Shafi, who has remained loyal to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif despite pressure from the high ups.
A party spokesman said in Karachi yesterday that the PML-N had rejected the results of local government elections in Karachi. These have been manipulated, and are grossly unfair to parties opposing the government.
He said that the party had nominated 2,200 candidates for post of nazims, naib nazims (chairmen and vice chairmen), and councilors. Of these, only 15 nazims, 15 naib nazims and 450 councilors have won the elections.
He claimed that results for another 450 nazims, naib nazims and councilors were changed. Candidates were threatened with dire consequences if they chose to file appeals against returning officers.
The intention of the administration was clear. It wanted to keep the party at bay, which was unfair, Shafi said.
In the meantime, hectic political wranglings had started in Karachi among different political parties, groups and factions for the coveted post of chief mayor for the city. Two major aspirants were the Jamaat-e-Islami which felt elated on regaining some of the lost grounds in a city which it had treated its stronghold till the emergence of MQM on the political horizon of the country, and the PPP which had bagged the second highest number of seats, were keen to get their representatives elected for the slot.
But the Jamaat’s local leader Niamatullah had been holding meetings with smaller factions of former leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP), and the independents, who have suddenly become important because of their strength. There are at least 50 independents, who will be floating votes, and open to bargain for those offering the most lucrative terms. The Jamaat has finished with 66 seats in a house of 178, and the PPP has 53. The People’s Party believed that it had been denied another about 20 seats by the administration, but there appeared little evidence of malpractices.
The second group of former Sharif loyalists, headed by Aleem Adil Sheikh, an ex-MPA, is the most sought after group. The JUP leader Hanif Tayyab had meetings with him, but the younger brother of Aleem Sheikh, has paid no attention to the the attempts made by Niamatullah for Jamat-e-Islami's cooperation with the JUP its allies. "That was a courtesy meeting" said Haleem Sheikh. The PPP too has been trying to mobilize support for the mayorship of Karachi which it will have for the first time ever since the party was born in 1967.
