Results of PS-11 will be challenged in the election tribunal, says CM Murad

He claims that voters were prevented from voting, the candidate was not allowed to enter polling stations

HYDERABAD: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will challenge the result of by-election in PS-11 constituency of Larkana in the Election Tribunal. "The voters were stopped from voting on the election day and even the election candidate [of PPP] was not allowed to enter the polling stations," Shah said while talking to the media in Sehwan, Jamshoro district, on Saturday.

The PPP candidate, Jamil Soomro, who is also the political secretary of the party's chairperson, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, was defeated by Grand Democratic Alliance's (GDA) Muazzam Ali Khan Abbassi by over 5,500 votes in PS-11 on October 17. The CM said Bilawal has assured that the party will win back PS-11 after challenging the current result in the tribunal.

The PPP, whose workers staged a sit-in demonstration for several hours outside the office of District Returning Officer on the election day, also claimed that its polling agents were not issued form 45 from many polling stations. Soomro said he was leading in the vote count from Abbassi until the results of 42 polling stations were announced.

"I hope that Abbassi will participate in Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam-Fazl's (JUI-F) long march because the party of Maulana Fazlur Rehman supported him in the by-poll." Abbassi was a joint candidate of several political parties including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf.

"PS-11 Larkana was PPP's constituency," said Shah. "We feel sad about the election."

Commenting on the party's co-chairperson and former president, Asif Ali Zardari's arrest, he said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) continued to keep him in custody even though he has not been indicted so far. "We feel very concerned about the health condition of Zardari. If anything happens to him, we will hold the government responsible," he warned.

He told that the PPP has awarded ticket to Syed Saleh Muhammad Shah to contest the by-election on PS-86 in Johi town of Dadu district. The seat fell vacant after the demise of Shah's father Syed Ghulam Shah Jilani.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2019.