PPP afraid of JI’s popularity: Hafiz Naeem

Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rahman said on Tuesday that he would appear before the election commission today (Wednesday) to argue for the rights of the people of Karachi and the party’s mandate.

The JI leader, addressing a press conference at their Karachi headquarters, also lashed out at rival Pakistan Peoples Party, accusing it of trying to influence the recently held local government polls.

He also accused it of being behind the delay in the announcement of the schedule for the remaining 11 union councils of Karachi where polling couldn’t take place due to a candidate’s death.

“The PPP government in Sindh doesn’t want LG elections in the remaining 11 UCs because it is afraid of the JI’s popularity and imminent victory there,” he said.

He also criticized the digital phase of the upcoming census, calling it fraudulent and riddled with problems.

“Its website went down within hours of the beginning of the census,” he said. On the one hand, it provides an opportunity to everyone to get registered but on the other, it suffers in terms of verification. The JI leader said that the elected representatives, belonging to the JI, will oversee the process of the census.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2023.