Election rivalry: PPP candidate issued notice for ‘arson’

Two children died when the houses were set on fire.

KARACHI: A Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate and other officials have been issued notices for allegedly burning the houses of the supporters of his rival candidate.

The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued notices on Thursday to the inspector general of police, deputy inspector general Larkana, Kandhkot’s deputy commissioner and PPP’s Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani. Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, while heading the bench, also called for comments from the provincial law officer.

Karim Dad Banglani had gone to the court against the officials. He told the judges that his clan has been a supporter of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazlur Rehman group. They supported and voted in favour of their tribal chief, Jahangir Banglani, who contested election on PS-16 seat against PPP’s Bijarani. This infuriated Bijarani, he said.

According to the petitioner’s lawyer Muhammad Khan Buriro, some armed men of the Bijrarani tribe attacked the Banglani houses in Karim Dan Banglani Goth and set them on fire to take revenge. The fire also killed two children but the police failed to take any action, the lawyer said.

“Is this the price to pay for casting a vote on one’s own choice?” the sweating middle-aged man clad in shalwar kameez told the reporters outside the courtroom. Earlier, he had requested SHC chief justice Mushir Alam to allow the hearing of his petition in Karachi because he could not go to Larkana to plead his case due to threats to his life. Allowing the request, Alam forwarded the petition to a division bench in Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2013.