PML-N candidate requests security after aerial firing at rally

Judge directs Malir SSP to provide security as per law.

KARACHI: A Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) candidate requested a district returning officer to provide security to him following aerial firing near his rally.

On Thursday, PML-N’s Raja Khaliquz Zaman Ansari told the district and sessions judge, Malir, Muhammad Yamin, that someone from a rival political party fired shots in the air near his rally in Gulshan-e-Hadeed on Wednesday but the police refused to lodge an FIR. He asked the judge to direct Malir SSP to provide security.

Ansari, who is contesting elections for PS-130 Malir, claimed that the administration of Pakistan Steel was working against him by advertising in favour of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) through the media. He insisted that the CBA, a workers union at Pakistan Steel, has given over 100 vehicles to PPP workers that were being used against him. “The administration of Pakistan Steel Mill and CBA were involved in it [the shooting],” he claimed.

Raising doubts over monitoring teams, Ansari told the returning officer that there were a number of active PPP workers who were part of the monitoring team and they would not be able to do monitoring work fairly. “A majority of the people whose names have been forwarded to you belong to the PPP,” he said.

After hearing his claims, the judge directed Malir SSP to provide him security as per law.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2013.