Vacating seats: PTI workers want party chief to retain NA-56 seat

Worry PML-N will win a by-election; PTI protest in Islamabad over alleged rigging around country.

RAWALPINDI/ ISLAMABAD:

Supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) have urged party chief Imran Khan not to vacate the NA-56 Rawalpindi seat, as they fear that the defeated PML-N candidate will retake the seat in a by-election.

Khan will have vacate two of the three seats he won during the general elections, and supporters are hoping they are NA-1 Peshawar and NA-71 Mianwali, rather than NA-56, which has historically been a lock for the PML-N.

“It is my request to Imran Khan not to leave this seat open as the PML-N will bring the same people we wanted to get rid of,” said Irfan Aziz, a PTI worker. The workers are of the view as PML-N is going to make government in the province, it will not be difficult for them to win the seat through rigging.

“The district government’s attitude has completely changed since the PML-N’s overwhelming majority, which is why PTI won’t be able to win this seat,” said Muhammad Aslam, a resident of Raja Bazaar.

“The PTI gained a majority in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and can easily win NA-1, while NA-71 is his own area and another candidate could also win it easily,” said Muhammad Shoaib, a PTI media officer.

However, the PML-N leadership is hopeful of winning the seat if left vacant by Khan and are planning to launch an aggressive campaign to woo its own disgruntled supporters.

“We will win it easily once PTI leave it vacant for a by-poll,” said Amir, a PML-N worker.

However, Ijaz Khan Jazi, the PTI’s winning candidate for PP-12, told The Express Tribune that Khan will not vacate the seat and has already decided to vacate NA-1 and NA-71.

D-Chowk protest

Meanwhile, around 500 PTI supporters held a peaceful protest at D-Chowk in Islamabad to protest the alleged rigging in Karachi and other parts of the country.

The protesters carried placards with slogans criticising the ECP and were shouting slogans against MQM’s chief Altaf Hussain and numerous PML-N leaders.

Muhammad Mustafa Aziz, a first-time voter said the residents of Islamabad were not protesting for their own selves, but in support of PTI voters in Karachi and Lahore.

“It is extremely important that we raise our voices against rigging,” Aziz said. “We need to record our protests now because soon the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the caretaker governments — the people responsible for conducting free and fair elections — will be gone.”

Protesters urged the ECP to hold fresh elections in the affected constituencies and involve the army to ensure no political candidates sabotage the electoral process. The PTI supporters also criticised the British government for its inaction against Altaf Hussain regarding recent statements made by the MQM leader.

Dr Shahzad Waseem, an advisor to PTI chairman Imran Khan, also showed up at the protest. He said the rigging incidents that have come in public view through mobile-phone videos and photographs of torn ballot papers are just the “tip of the iceberg.”

Waseem called for a forensic analysis of thumb prints on ballot papers in those constituencies where allegations of rigging have surfaced. He said cross-referencing the thumbprints with the Nadra database will reveal if the ballots were faked.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2013.