On Friday, students from the Government College Cheecha Watni and teachers from across Sahiwal division joined the protest. Teachers and students of the Government College Cheecha Watni have not been visiting the college since May 11.

The protesters demand that the returning officer be transferred to another division.

PLA Sahiwal president Prof Abdus Salam Daula said that lecturers and professors would boycott classes all over the Punjab, if the returning officer was not transferred.

Police said Azhar Iqbal, a lecturer at the Government College Cheecha Watni, was a presiding officer on May 11 reporting to Additional Sessions Judge Pervez Ismail Joiya, the returning officer.

They said when Iqbal went to submit results from his polling station to the returning officer, he told him to wait saying he (Joiya) had to deal with the women presiding officers first.

They said Iqbal demanded that he be dealt with first and was joined by some other teachers.

Police said he was told to follow the judge’s orders, but he refused. They said Iqbal had then tried to leave with a bag containing ballots and a ballot box. They said they caught him with help from army officials. They said when Iqbal was presented before the returning officer, he again tried to flee with the ballots.

They said when the returning officer ordered the police to take the bag from him, he tried to hit the returning officer and abused him.

They said Muhammad Qureshi, the Government College Cheecha Watni principal, came over and tried to resolve the issue by tendering an apology.

Iqbal denied the allegations. He said he had not misbehaved with the returning officer. He said he had questioned the returning officer’s telling him wait since “the women presiding” officers had submitted their results after him.

He said the returning officer had then directed his guards to arrest him. He said they had detained and beaten him up.

Iqbal said the principal was told to submit a written apology.

Returning Officer Joiya said he had told Iqbal to wait so that the women presiding officers could be relieved early. He said Iqbal had misbehaved but he had accepted the apology and had let him go.

Some policemen corroborated the returning officer’s account.

Captain Farooq, deputed for the security of the office of the returning officer, said Iqbal had violated the code of conduct, but was let go on the order of the returning officer.

Since the alleged incident, protests have expanded from Cheecha Watni across the Sahiwal division. The Multan chapter of the Professors and Lecturers Association (PLA) also protested against the returning officer’s alleged behaviour on Friday.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2013.

MULTAN: A woman and her sister were taken to Nishtar Hospital in Multan on Thursday after they were attacked with acid allegedly by the former’s step-son, police said.

Police said Sohail Ahmed*, 25, the assailant, was missing since the attack. They said he was apparently a drug addict and had attacked his step-mother after she refused to give him money for narcotics.

A case has been registered on the complaint of the women’s brother. He told police that his sister Zahida Bibi*, a resident of Tatarwala in Jampur, was the second wife. He said after the death of her husband, her step-son Ahmed had been mistreating her.

He said Ahmed would beat her up if she refused to give him money. He said that Ahmed had been a drug addict for four years.

On Wednesday night, he said, Ahmed again asked her for money. When she refused, he left home. However, he returned with two unidentified men after some time and beat Zahida Bibi and her sister Anila Bibi*, who was visiting her. He them threw acid at the women and fled.

Some neighbours took the injured women to the tehsil headquarters hospital, from where they were sent to Nishtar Hospital in Multan.

Doctors treating them said that both the women had 50 per cent burns. In each case, they said, the acid had affected the face, the neck, the chest and the abdomen. They said it would take next 48 hours to see if the women were critical.

City Station House Officer Ghulam Fareed said that preliminary investigations had revealed a property dispute between the assailant and the step-mother. He said Ahmed’s mother had left home after his father married Zahida Bibi. He said his father had transferred most of his property to Zahida Bibi before his death.

Ahmed, the SHO said, had apparently been asking Zahida Bibi to return the property. He said Ahmed had attacked her twice previously, but she had remained unharmed.

The SHO said that a police team was looking for Ahmed and his accomplices. He said they would soon raid Ahmed’s mother’s house.

*Names Have Been Changed To Protect Identity

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2013.

Police in Rahim Yar Khan District have lodged an FIR against the FAFEN chief Syed Mudassir Rizvi under section 505/B for propagating wrong information with the intention to disrupt peace under section. The FIR was lodged on the orders of the DPO Rahim Yar Khan, SSP Sohail Habib Tajik.

FAFEN had reported that in NA 195 and NA 193 the voter turnout was more than 240% on the day of elections, but the official figures say otherwise.

Given the volatile post-election political climate, the FAFEN report, according to police, can cause a riot in the constituency.

FAFEN claims that voter turnout was more than the total registered voters in many polling stations. The network has backed its claims on reports of its representatives appointed at each polling station.

FAFEN has raised objections on the results of 49 constituencies of the provincial assemblies and the National Assembly after taking samples from 8,119 polling stations. It has also demanded the ECP take notice of the situation.

Despite the objection raised by FAFEN that voter turnout was more than 240% in NA-193 and NA-195, the official numbers presented a different story in Rahim Yar Khan.

According to the results in NA-193, Sheikh Fayazuddin of PML-N has won with 86,015 votes beating Mian Abdus Sattar of PPP who had secured 46,134 votes. Total registered voters in 257 polling stations in sub district Khanpur of Rahim Yar Khan were 288,381 and total votes cast were 163,913.

Similarly, results issued by the returning officer Justice Sardar Muhammad Khan in NA-195 in sub district Rahim Yar Khan of the same district, the total registered voters are 307,813 and votes cast are 172,539. Winning candidate Syed Mustafa Mehmood of PPP secured 97,769 votes beating the independent candidate Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiyar who had secured 46,888 votes.

As per the official record, the FAFEN figures are completely off the mark.

Police lodged the separate FIRs in Khanpur police station and Iqbalabad police station in Rahim Yar Khan on the applications of the respective station house officers of the police stations.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2013.

“Our elders decided long ago that it is a sin for women to vote,” said Baba Omar, 80, a resident of Mohripur.

“Women have never voted here…we believe women who vote will go to hell,” he said.

The regional election commission had set up three polling stations in Mohripur for the general elections 2013 including separate polling booths for women. Women presiding officers and polling staff were also appointed.

“None of them voted,” said Samia Bibi, a resident of the area.

She said most women in Mohri Pur worked as daily wage labourers and it was not purdah that stopped them from voting.

“We work in the fields and at other places…it is about following our traditions,” she said.

Malik Khadim Hussain, the head of a village panchayat in Mohripur, told The Express Tribune “We feel honoured that the women here have never opted to vote.” Mohripur is part of the NA-156 constituency. Raza Hayat Hiraaj, an independent candidate, won this seat for the third time this year securing more than 78,000 votes.

Hiraaj told The Express Tribune that he had tried to persuade women to vote but failed.

“They [women] have brought religion into the matter,” he said.“90 per cent of the women here are illiterate and cannot even speak the national language [Urdu] properly.” Hiraaj said.

Ayesha Mai, another native of Mohri Pur, said women were under the impression that if they voted they would go to hell.

“You do not even talk about it… I fear that even hearing about casting votes will attract hell,” she added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2013.

Dasti, who won two National Assembly seats, NA-177 (Muzaffargarh-II) and NA-178 (Muzaffargarh-III), in the May 11 elections, was previously affiliated with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

According to sources, the PML-N has asked all district presidents of the party to invite independent candidates – including Dasti – into the party folds. They confirmed that Dasti is willing to join the PML-N.

However, Dasti spelled out four conditions for joining the PML-N. Firstly, he wants the PML-N support his candidate in the NA-178 by-elections as he is relinquishing this seat in favour of NA-177.  “I want to field a candidate who like me, belongs to the lower middle class,” Dasti says.

Secondly, Dasti calls for strengthening the Muzaffargarh link canal which, according to him, is a major threat to local residents. Thirdly, Dasti says that Muzaffargarh should not be left at the mercy of the bureaucracy, like it was done in the past. Lastly, he seeks exemption for labourers and daily-wage workers from fare in local transport at the district level.

Dasti, who had also won the 2008 election from Muzaffargarh, says that it took the people of Muzaffargarh decades to be free themselves from the clutches of feudal lords.

“Democracy is their [feudal lords’] tool to fool the poor people like us and nobody has ever visited the people in the constituency,” he says.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2013.

MULTAN: Former Prime Minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPPP) senior vice president Yousaf Raza Gilani resigned from his senior party position on Monday.

“Someone needs to stand up and accept responsibility and I accept responsibility.”

He made the announcement  during a press conference at Multan press club on Monday, two days after his party failed to get a substantive number of seats in the May 11 polls.

“I am surprised at the people of Pakistan who blamed PPP for every crisis,” Gilani said talking about the mandate of Pakistanis who did not re-elect the PPP government.

Confirming that his party will now spend the next five years on the opposition benches, Gilani ensured the PPP will play an effective role.

“I accept public’s decision and I understand that the public was angry about power outages and unstable economy but Why didn’t anyone ask Shahbaz Sharif about how many Watts had he contributed in energy production of the country?” he questioned.

“The kidnapping of my son is no way related to my resignation and I have no differences with the leadership of the party,” he said talking about kidnapping of his son Ali Haider Gilani on the eve of the elections.

Gilani was elected prime minister after the 2008 general elections and held the position till April 26, 2012.

LAHORE / MULTAN: A white-paper will be issued by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) against alleged rigging at some polling stations in Karachi and Punjab, announced PTI chief Imran Khan on Sunday.

“The white-paper will inform the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) of the tactics used for rigging these polls so that the practice can be checked in future,” said Imran, who is recovering from back and head injuries after he fell off a fork-lift at a PTI public meeting in Lahore on May 7.

On his hospital bed, Imran’s spirits were high as he sought an angle of optimism in PTI’s defeat: “The biggest power of democracy is the opposition. We will show this country what a strong opposition is like.”

With the PTI emerging as one of the top parties, and having won majority seats in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Imran said, “We will turn the government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa into a model government.”

“The gloom of defeat has not affected me as I have witnessed the unprecedented zeal and fervour of the youth and women in this country.”

The ‘core’ reason

The extra hour for polling allowed by the ECP is the core reason of PTI’s defeat, said PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Discussions regarding allegations of rigging will take place at the party-level, after which the party will make a complaint to the poll body, he said.

As lack of timely arrangements had delayed the polling process at several polling stations in the country, the ECP had extended the countrywide polling deadline by an hour. Polling stations in seven Karachi constituencies were given an extension of three hours.

Qureshi’s stance towards PTI’s defeat was similar to Imran’s. He said PTI accepts the people’s mandate and will sit in the opposition. “We will be the toughest and most disciplined opposition in the history of this country – and not a friendly one like PML-N.”

About the independent candidates, Qureshi said PTI is an ideal party for them as it has proved to be the icon of change through its policies and ideology. “Independent candidates should not opt for power, luxuries and nepotism.”

Furthermore, the PTI leader appreciated Jamshed Dasti, saying that he broke the status quo dominated by feudal lords in Muzaffargarh by securing two National Assembly seats.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2013.

Shafqat Zahra Bukhari is running from PP-283 as a Justice Party Pakistan candidate. She is running against Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat’s Rehan Mehmood Farooqi, who is also said to have the support of Muttahida Deeni Muhaz and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Meera explained her strategy.

“We need to educate people about our family and my mothers’ services as an educationist.”

Meera wears shalwar qamees and covers her head with a duppatta during the visits. She says people need to know why her mother is a better choice than her opponents. She says she has been disappointed by the propaganda against her and her family. “They called us prostitutes … They are targeting her because I chose to be an actress.”

Meera says she has left every house having won a voter for her mother. “When they learn the truth about us, our connections to spiritual leaders and my mother’s services, they agree to vote for her.”

Bukhari, a retired deputy education officer in Bahwalnagar, is a Syed— something Meera believes will help her mother garner votes of the Shiite community in the area.

Meera says her (Meera’s) image has so far been her mother’s greatest challenge. She says she is determined to change people’s perspectives about women in the entertainment industry.

Meera says she is not scared by death threats from the extremists. She also says, she would not hesitate for a moment if she were asked to lay down her life for her mother.

After retirement, Bukhari started an NGO called the Al Shafqat Welfare Trust to help marry poor girls. The trust also provides sewing machines to unemployed widows in Bahawalnagar. Bukhari, who mostly remained quiet during her election campaign, told The Express Tribune that going door-to-door was not easy. “Answering insensitive questions in a way that they trust you is a challenge.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2013.

Talking to reporters late Thursday night, he said that since the Gilani family offered stiff competition to Qureshi and Bosan in key constituencies they might be behind the incident.

However, in the same breath he added that unless the law enforcement agencies completed their inquiry nothing could be ascertained.

“It’s a planned conspiracy to keep the Gilanis away from elections since all members of the family are mourning and no one is really paying attention to the elections,” he said.

He added that the incident displayed the biasness of the election commission who were organising the elections in the absence of a candidate from one of the major political parties in the country.

“Everybody knows that he had been publicly attacked and kidnapped but the election commission does not want to face up to the reality,” he said.

He complained that the ECP had overlooked the security threats to the PPP. “If the election commission is not biased, it should explain why polls are still being conducted in the constituency,” he questioned.

Despite his brawl with the electoral body, Ali Musa vowed to contest the elections. “My victory like my previous one will be a message for all those trying to derail democracy,” he added.

In stark contrast to his son’s claims, Yousaf Raza Gilani holding a separate conference stated “even if heads of all political party leaders are cut, these elections should not be delayed”.

Talking to the media at his residence, the senior PPP leader said that the Chief of Army Staff had assured him of his full support and promised the earliest possible recovery of Ali Haider Gilani.

Offering sympathies to the family Pakistan-Tehreek-Insaaf president Javed Hashmi said that Moosa Ali Gilani and Abdul Qadir Gilani ‘are right in demanding a delay in elections in their constituencies’.

Visiting the family late Thursday night the former PML-N leader said that the emotions of both the brothers should be respected.

While condemning the incident he blamed the caretaker Punjab government for its negligence, saying that the administration was treating the threat to the Gilani family like a routine matter. “The incident demands special attention from the provincial government and their law enforcement agencies,” he said.

Investigations

In a bid to recover Ali Haider Gilani raids were conducted across South Punjab. Special intelligence teams from Lahore and Islamabad also arrived in Multan and inspected the incident site.

Initial investigations suggest that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, who posed great threat to the family, might be behind the kidnapping. Sharing information on the matter an intelligence official stated that members of the group, headed by Rizwan aka Asif Choto, reached Rawalpindi, Multan and Bahawalpur two days prior to the incident. The Shia community and the prominent leaders of the area are cited to be the targets of the banned outfit.

People present in both the corner meetings with Ali Haider Gilani, right before his abduction, have been interrogated. Some 13 members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi have also been arrested from different places in South Punjab. They have been shifted to undisclosed locations in Multan for questioning.

Sources privy to the matter revealed that law enforcement authorities are expecting a major breakthrough in the case and have identified parts of the kidnapping plan.

Meanwhile, an FIR has been registered in Seetal Maari police station on the application of Muhammad Nazar, brother of Ghulam Mohiuddin, secretary of kidnapped son of Yousuf Raza Gilani. The FIR has been registered under sections 302, 324, 148, 149, 365 and 7ATA against 8 unidentified assailants.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2013.

The incident took place at a PPP corner meeting in Farrukhabad, near Matital Road in Multan, where the former premier’s son, Ali Haider Gilani, was scheduled to address.

According to the Central Police Officer (CPO), Multan, eight armed men riding a black Honda City car and two 125 cc motorcycles, opened fire at a corner meeting in Farrukh Town, an area falling in Ali Haider’s PP-200 constituency.

Witnesses said a bullet also hit Ali Haider and that he was bleeding when the kidnappers dragged him into the car.

The attack killed Ali Haider’s secretary, Muhammad Muhiuddin, and his private guard, Amin Ahmed.

Following the incident, the police sealed all entry and exit points into the city, and Inspector General (IG) of Punjab police summoned a report from RPO Multan. The police also arrested five suspects, two of whom they claim have important information related to the case.

While they have not yet released any official information about the interrogations, sources claim the former premier’s son has been shifted to sub-district Kabeerwaala, a LeJ stronghold.

Though no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, Yousaf Raza Gilani and other family members confirmed that Ali Haider had been receiving death and kidnapping threats from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Sipah-e-Sahaba.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) when contacted, refused to comment on the abduction incident.

“I do not want to comment [on the incident],” TTP spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan said. “We do not know as to who has kidnapped him, and why and how he was kidnapped.”

Following the incident, PPP workers started to protest but Yousaf Raza Gilani urged his supporters to remain peaceful and to pray for his son’s return.

Speaking to the media, Ali Haider’s brother, Ali Musa Gilani, said PPP will not allow elections to take place in any constituency of Multan if his brother is not traced by Thursday night.

Musa also said that his party members were not allowed to carry weapons, or keep security guards as per the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) code of conduct.

“There was no security and no weapons. They [the gunmen] came and easily took him [Ali Haider] away,” an impassioned Musa said.

Abdul Qadir Gilani, Ali Haider’s eldest brother, also shared the same opinion, saying his party was deprived of all security measures and were receiving direct threats from the Taliban.

However, later in the day Yousaf Raza Gilani ruled out the possibility of boycotting elections. “Elections are a national obligation and we will not boycott them,” he said.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi lashes out

Condemning Ali Haider’s abduction, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the ECP should take notice of Ali Musa’s statements.

The PTI vice-chairman told The Express Tribune that Gilani’s sons were threatening other candidates and this was irresponsible of them.

“PTI considers the statement a direct threat to all other candidates contesting elections, especially those from Multan,” said Qureshi, who is contesting NA-148 against Musa.

Condemnation

Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari and PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari condemned the abduction of Ali Haider Gilani and demanded measures to be taken for his immediate recovery.

When queried on Twitter on providing security to candidates, Punjab Chief Minister, Najam Sethi pointed to the logistical impossibility of providing adequate security to more than 5,000 election candidates.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2013.