JI warns of protest over delay in LG polls

Accuses ECP and government of denying citizens their constitutional rights

ISLAMABAD:

Jamaat-e-Islami Islamabad Ameer, Engineer Nasrullah Randhawa, on Sunday called for the immediate conduct of local government elections in the federal capital, warning that if elections are not announced without delay, the party would surround the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

He alleged that the electoral watchdog is complicit with the government in its failure to hold local polls.

Randhawa said the rights of the people of Islamabad are being usurped and there is no authority willing to listen. "The people of Islamabad now understand clearly who has plundered their rights," he added.

Jamaat-e-Islami Islamabad organised a protest outside the National Press Club against the failure to hold local government elections in the federal capital. Demonstrators carried placards and banners demanding immediate local polls, and raised strong slogans against the delay.

Those who addressed the protest included Jamaat-e-Islami Islamabad Secretary General Zubair Safdar, President of the Traders' Association Kashif Chaudhry, Head of Political Affairs Huma Ayyub, and others.

Addressing the gathering, Engineer Randhawa said no new drinking-water project had been initiated in Islamabad. Residents, he added, were struggling to access water, while responsibility for the shortage lay with the CDA, the federal government, and the local administration.

He criticised the concentration of power in a single individual who simultaneously holds the roles of Mayor, CDA Chairman, and Commissioner. He noted that no development work was taking place in Islamabad's peripheral areas.

The JI leader further alleged that illegal settlements were being established through bribery, while Islamabad's citizens were being taxed more heavily than people across the rest of the country.

Under the Constitution, he said, Islamabad should have a provincial-level government. Instead, the rights of the people were being continually violated with no accountability.

He emphasised that the Constitution mandates local government elections every five years. The local polls due in June 2021, he noted, were scheduled only after directions from the courts, yet still postponed. "The Election Commission is aligned with them," he alleged, adding that JI would continue its struggle for the conduct of local elections and would stage demonstrations outside the Election Commission and the CDA.

Speaking at the protest, Secretary General Zubair Safdar demanded that Islamabad be freed from bureaucratic control and handed over to an elected leadership. "There is no trace of development in Islamabad.