NA-122 by-poll : JI, 14 other parties announce support for Aleem Khan

Sarwar says where possible the PTI would support JI in local government polls

LAHORE:

The Lahore organisation of Jamaat Islami on Monday announced support for the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf in the upcoming by-poll in the NA-122 constituency.

Separately, several other religious parties including the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) and the Sunni Tehrik (ST) also announced support for PTI candidate Abdul Aleem Khan.

Addressing a press conference at Mansoora, JI Lahore amir Mian Maqsood Ahmed said the party would support the PTI candidate against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Sardar Ayaz Sadiq.

Ahmed was flanked at the press conference by PTI Punjab organiser Chaudhry Sarwar.

Sarwar said where possible his party would extend support to JI candidates in the local government elections in the province. Sarwar said he was thankful to the JI leadership for announcing support for the PTI candidate. He alleged that the provincial government was using the police force to harass PTI workers.

The PTI had first solicited JI’s support for its candidate on Friday. A second meeting was held between delegations from the two parties ahead of PTI chairman Imran Khan’s address to a public gathering in Samanabad’s Doongi Ground.

Besides Sarwar, PTI Punjab deputy organiser Omer Sarfaraz cheema, Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Mehmoodur Rasheed and PTI candidate for NA-122 by-poll Abdul Aleem Khan were part of the delegation that visited Mansoora on Monday morning.

At a press conference held later in the day, Sarwar announced that 14 other religious parties had also agreed to support Aleem Khan.

The press conference at the party’s central secretariat was also attended by its central organiser Jehangir Khan Tareen and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.

Leaders of the SIC, the ST, the Sunni Youth Wing, the Anjuman Talba-i-Islam, the Pakistan Falah Party, the National Mashaikh Council, the Sunni Tanzeemul Fuqraa, the Tanzeemul Masajid, the Markazi Majlis Chishtia and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan Niazi faction (JUP-Niazi) were also present.

SIC leader Hamid Raza Qadri said the PML-N did not have the mandate to rule the country. He said the party had come to power through rigged elections.

Sarwar said the NA-122 by-poll was not a contest between two candidates or parties. “It is a referendum against the corrupt practices of the government,” he said. He said the PML-N had lost support in the province. He said the provincial government was using public resources to run Ayaz Sadiq’s campaign.

Sarwar said the PTI had learnt its lessons from the 2013 general election and would not let the government rig the NA-122 by-poll. “This is not the same party that contested the 2013 general elections. Our workers are better trained now to check rigging,” he said.

He said it appeared that the provincial government was not interested in holding local government elections according to the schedule announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). “We will not allow them to delay local government elections” he said.

He also urged the government to ensure law and order on the election day.

Speaking on the occasion, PTI central organiser Jahangir Tareen said that he would soon challenge the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s order suspending the election tribunal’s de-seating of PML-N’s Siddique Baloch.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2015.