Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) will not boycott elections, said the party’s Karachi Ameer Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Sunday. PHOTO: JI Official Facebook page.
Despite having reservations on the Sindh Local Government Act 2013 that would govern the upcoming local government elections, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) will not boycott elections, said the party’s Karachi Ameer Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Sunday.
“We will send a message through the elections that change can be brought in the city,” said Rehman as he confirmed that the JI, in alliance with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, will contest the local government elections in Karachi. Rehman also said that coalition talks with other political parties are also in progress.
“Since there was little hope of free and fair elections during the Pakistan Peoples Party government, JI had filed a petition in the Sindh High Court so that the reservations of political parties could be addressed,” he said.
Similarly, the Pakistan Muslim League - Functional’s leader, MPA Imtiaz Shaikh, made it clear that his party will not boycott the local government elections despite objections to the way they are being conducted. At a press conference on Saturday, Shaikh clarified that the PML-F and other political parties have united with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement on one point agenda. “Without any doubt, we will take part in the elections, even though we don’t have any hope that the PPP government in Sindh will conduct fair elections,” he said adding that the provincial government has already set the foundation of rigging by gerrymandering boundaries of the constituencies.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 23rd, 2013.
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