Polls next week: Muslim Conference candidates withdraw for MQM

Sardar Atiqur Rehman and Altaf Hussain have been in contact and have rejected the elections: Dar.

KARACHI:

Candidates of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference for the constituencies LA-30 and L-36 have withdrawn from the elections in support of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) candidates.

Speaking at a press conference at the press club here on Sunday, candidates Abdur Rasheed Dar and Syed Mehmood Abbasi announced they were stepping back for the MQM’s Tahir Khokhar and Saleem Butt.

The polls are scheduled for July 20.

“All the activists and supporters of the Muslim Conference will struggle for the success of the MQM candidates in the elections,” said Dar.

Muslim Conference president Sardar Atiqur Rehman and MQM leader Altaf Hussain have been in contact and have rejected the elections, he said.

They alleged that the chief election commissioner has played the role of a “Pakistan Peoples Party agent”. “Fake electoral lists and polling schemes were produced and on polling day, fake votes were put in the ballot boxes,” claimed Dar.

For now, however, they were satisfied with the election arrangements and preparations for these two constituencies as the government has said that the polling stations will at their old places.

This is why they are sure that the MQM candidates will win, they said.

Candidate Saleem Butt thanked the Muslim Conference for giving its full support to the MQM.

According to Saleem Butt, 69,000 registered voters are in LA-30 constituency and there are more than 6,000 in LA-36.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2011.