PTI, GDA accuse PPP of violating ECP code of conduct

For a single NA seat, whole of Sindh govt and PPP's leadership has descended in Ghotki, says Haleem Adil

HYDERABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Sindh's leader Haleem Adil Sheikh has said that Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) Sindh government has broken all records of violation of code of conduct set by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for the by-polls on NA-205 constituency in Ghotki district. Addressing a press conference along with Grand Democratic Alliance's (GDA) leader Sardar Ghous Bux Khan Mahar in Sukkur district on Sunday, Sheikh accused Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and other cabinet members of running a campaign in support of their NA-205 candidates.

"But the ECP seems totally silent so far," he bewailed. The PTI leader said that his party has been supporting the independent candidate Ahmed Ali Mahar who is contesting against PPP's Sardar Muhammad Bux Khan Mahar, the former Sindh sports minister.

"For a single NA seat, the whole of PPP's Sindh government and the party's leadership has descended in Ghotki to stage rallies and the government's work is virtually suspended to run the election campaign". He questioned why the PPP, which claims to be taking out rallies against inflation and taxes, did not take to streets over the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in parts of Larkana district.

Sheikh contended that the PPP's candidate already stood disqualified as he failed to mention the criminal cases against him and his allegedly illegal occupation of 2,000 acres of federal government's land in his nomination papers. "Officials get transferred when they initiate inquiry in that land grabbing case".

The PTI leader asserted that the PPP's July 12 sit-in demonstration in Sukkur was a flop show. He claimed that the PPP's internal party politics had been marred by grouping as five politicians were lobbying for the slot of Sindh CM since Shah faced the prospect of arrest by the National Accountability Bureau.

GDA's Sardar also alleged that the Sindh government was running the election campaign for their candidate in NA-205. The independent candidate Ahmed Ali Mahar said that the PPP candidate even went to file his nomination papers in the government's protocol. "The voters are being harassed by the PPP government". He demanded that the by-polls should be held under the security of the army.

GDA

GDA General Secretary Ayaz Palijo said that the PPP's Sindh government had started making efforts to manipulate the polls in the pre-election phase of July 18 by-polls in Ghotki. "Sindh CM and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari all have reached the region to influence the elections," Palijo said in a statement in Hyderabad.

He reiterated the accusation that neither did PPP's Mahar mention the criminal cases against him in the nomination paper nor was the matter 2,000 acres of land stated. Palijo said that the ECP has thus ignored several violations of the code of conduct by the candidates and the provincial government.