KARACHI: The coalition partner in federal government, Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) has announced to boycott second phase of local government elections being held in Karachi and Hyderabad today (Sunday).
Announcing the decision after day-long consultations on late Saturday in Karachi, MQM-P Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui rejected, what he called, ‘fake’ delimitations of constituencies and voter lists.
He said that MQM was boycotting elections due to injustice and behaviour of the Election Commission, adding that it was the electoral watchdog’s responsibility to keep an eye on constituencies, but it failed.
It is pertinent to mention here that the the Sindh government had postponed the Karachi and Hyderabad LG polls for multiple times and multiple reasons, including once in response to MQM-P demand about reservations about Union Councils’ structure.
However, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) rejected the provincial government’s notification on postponement of LG polls and ruled that the local bodies elections would be held as per schedule on January 15. Earlier, amid speculation that the MQM-P could part ways with the coalition government or even boycott the elections, Bilawal offered the party some last-minute advice.
Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said MQM had contacted every forum including courts on the issue.“The courts asked us to approach provincial government and the election commission,” he said, reiterating that delimitations of constituencies and voter lists were fake in this LG elections.
He said MQM was contacted by the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as well. He expressed resolve to keep standing with federal government for the sake of democracy despite their reservations, adding that “the federal government could not have been formed without MQM’s help.”
Speaking on this occasion, Mustafa Kamal said the provincial government admitted the mistake of delimitation in 53 union councils and had written to the ECP, but to no avail.
