ECP Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed addressed the media about elections on Saturday. PHOTO: EXPRESS/ FILE
ISLAMABAD: Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Ishtiaq Ahmed while conceding things had gone wrong in Karachi, said on Saturday that the commission had largely fulfilled its responsibility of holding elections in a fair and transparent manner with a good voter turnout.
Addressing a news conference in Islamabad he said that polling in Punjab remained largely peaceful. He said that people in KPK and FATA also exercised their right of vote in a satisfactory manner.
Ahmed said that there has been no untoward incident in Balochistan except for the one at Qila Abdullah where an exchange of fire took place between two groups.
The ECP official said a meeting of the Commission under the chairmanship of Chief Election Commissioner would be held to discuss rigging complaints in Karachi and that the true picture of what happened in Karachi would be brought before the nation.
"The election commission of Pakistan was successful in conducting the elections. We have a huge turnout in Punjab," Ahmed said. He was hopeful of a high voter turnout. He added that there were reports of rigging by political parties in Karachi.
COMMENTS (18)
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Important that the ECP and Supreme Court ban political parties on the basis of hate, ethnicity or religion. Only way to move forward instead of staying in a time warp. Implementation is the key.
The party responsible for rigging most elections in Karachi can not be named by the media because most media outlets are based in Karachi, and said party has a stronghold over pretty much the entire city - their goons aren't afraid to kill those who resist. They control people by fear, not too different from the 'extremists' that the entire mainstream media was up in arms about (and rightfully so).
I got a close-up view of Karachi's leading party at a polling station where I was a PTI polling agent ------ disgusting and full of deceipt.
ECP failed miserably in Karachi. Now whole world needs to know what happened. Please encourage everyone to upload their Karachi videos to Youtube.
re-election in all constituencies of karachi...
And we all know who did the dhaandlee they have weapons to keep eveyones mouth shut even ecp so whoever wil voice against them will be killed kidnapped tortured and everybody will be quiet ...shhhhh na maloom afraad (what a irony)
I m disappointed with the ECP and the security forces including the army for not making sure of free and fair elections in Pakistans largest city karachi. We should have re-election in all constituencies of karachi.
When the Karachi party dmelled defeat they resorted to their old tactics, but forgot that people now have mobile phones to record, media is there to see as well.
In 250 we could see who the Namalum afraad were. When the rangers came, they ran...some got caught, and in typical Pakistan fashion were given a phanti by the law...
And people Cheered!!!!!
Notice the complete absence of final results from Karachi. Post poll rigging going on as we speak. I truly feel disappointed with ECP and Army.
The usual suspects, namaloom afraad, once again proving themselves to be biggest hurdles to peace in Karachi.
ECP should do re-election in whole Karachi, All parties are claiming ragging in some areas. We witnessed that Political Parties were holding the control of Polling Stations, and threatening to peoples. Presiding officers should be from Armed Forces.
There are allways been rigging in karachi elections but thanks to media now some truth will come out to public.
As expected, it wasnt the Taliban that created problems on election day in Karachi, it was the namaloom afraad.