‘Knock all you want - no army, no voter verification’

Parties raise their concern about absence of army and election staff in certain areas.

KARACHI:

As the opposition continues to reject the ongoing voter verification process in Karachi, without the presence of the army or FC personnel, multiple parties held a protest on Wednesday outside the Election Commission office.

Activists belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Sunni Tehreek, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and other political parties, demanded that the process should be made transparent. They criticised the Election Commission for not following the Supreme Court order in letter and spirit. “Voter verification was supposed to take place with the help of army but that is not happening,” said JI’s leader, Muhammad Hussain Mehanti. “The entire process has been hijacked by one political party. We don’t expect any change considering how the voter lists are being verified.”

Mahenti said that a three-day long sit-in will start on Saturday at 3pm outside the election commission’s office if the voter verification process in Karachi continues without deployment of army personnel.

The Supreme Court had ordered the lists to be rechecked, with the help of the army, amid accusations that there were three million fake voters.

Political opponents of the Muttahida Quami Movement alleged they have been put at a disadvantage as record of thousands of their supporters has been changed.

Veteran politician Irfanullah Khan Marwat said that he had come out to protest after losing hope. “The whole process is a sham,” he said. “I have always enjoyed support in Azam Basti, which falls under PS-114 where around 31,000 voters were registered in last elections - now the election commission’s record shows there are just 21,000 voters. The demographical trend, however, clearly indicates that the numbers should have increased.”



The number of people who find the process flawed, however, remained questionable as amid flags and leaders of about a dozen political parties, people in attendance were hardly around 100. “This is a symbolic protest. We will bring out a lot more numbers when we feel the need,” said PTI’s Nadir Khan Legari, defending the small size of the gathering.

Waiting for the doorknock

Meanwhile, a delegation of the nationalist party Sindh National Movement (SNM) met the Sindh Election Commissioner Mehboob Anwar at his office to complain about the absence of election commission staff in their areas.

“Even after two weeks, the election commission has not visited Sindhi-dominated areas in Karachi to verify the votes,” said SNM President Ali Hassan Chandio, while expressing the party’s reservations about the accuracy of the process. “Thousands of votes of our people living in Gulstan-e-Iqbal town have been shifted to rural areas.  We are worried that these people will be unable to cast their vote in Karachi.”

Speaking to the media, Chandio said that a large number of ‘bogus’ voters were registered in their areas, the evidence for which was also provided to the election commission a few years ago, but no action has been taken so far.

“A couple of days back, our activists apprehended two fake enumerators in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. Later, we submitted proof to the election commission and they also disowned the suspects -but no effort is being made to make this process transparent,” said Chandio.

He went to say that the election commission is flouting the Supreme Court’s directives to start the door-to-door verification with the help of army and initiate the delimitation of constituencies in Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2013.