ISLAMABAD: Political parties aligned against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday staged a protest demonstration outside the office of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in Islamabad.
Leaders from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Awami National Party (ANP) and other political groups participated in the demonstration held at the Constitution Avenue against alleged rigging in the July 25 general election.
PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafique, Ahsan Iqbal, Chaundry Tanvir, Mushahid Hussain, Khawaja Asif and Raja Zafarul Haq took part in the demonstration. PPP’s Sherry Rehman, Yousuf Raza Gillani, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Farhatullah Babar, Aitzaz Ahsan and Naveed Qamar and ANP’s Mian Iftikhar participated in the protest alongside party workers and supporters. Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) head Maulana Fazlur Rehman represented their parties.
PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif, however, was not in attendance.
Workers, numbering in hundreds, chanted slogans about their respective political parties as well as against the alleged rigging. Security officials were deployed in the area to maintain law and order.
Speaking on the occasion, PPP leader Sherry Rehman demanded resignation from the ECP officials. “We will go to the parliament and unite political parties,” she vowed.
Former interior minister and PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal warned that those who think protestors will dissipate without getting their demands fulfilled are mistaken. “We will not allow anyone to rob masses of their right to rule. we will continue to protest until a leadership representative of masses’ will rules Pakistan,” he said. Iqbal also slammed Imran, saying he had earlier promised recounts in constituencies but is now opposing recount in his own constituency.
PML-N’s Raja Zafarul Haq claimed the election results did not reflect the voters’ choice. “We want to tell the world that the public rejects [these] elections. We are united on this matter,” he said, adding that the ECP was not allowed to fulfil its duty.
“The only reason why all political parties have joined hands today is because the ECP failed to conduct free and fair elections,” Fazlur Rehman, chief of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam and president of the MMA, said. “We don’t accept the election commission and reject the election results,” he said. “We want to give this message to Nawaz Sharif: you might be in jail, but we will not let your absence to be felt in outside,” he added.
The decision to hold the protest was made by the newly formed 11-party grand opposition alliance named ‘Pakistan Alliance for Free and Fair Elections’, at a multi-party conference held in Islamabad last week.
Earlier in the day, ANP and JUI-F workers blocked Peshawar-Islamabad motorway. The demonstrations were held after a provincial meeting of the JUI-F announced to block all major roads of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. ANP also directed its party workers to support demonstrations across KP and outside the office of the ECP.
The opposition alliance has also given a call for holding protests outside the offices of the provincial election commissions on Thursday. They also have a plan to hold a public meeting in Islamabad soon after Eidul Azha.
The opposition parties plan to organise a ‘national conference on rigging’ in which not only political parties but members from civil society, lawyers and journalists will also be invited.
Published in Daily Times, August 9th 2018.
