QUETTA: Two Balochistan political parties have agreed to launch a protest campaign against alleged election cheating, branding the polls on February 8 as the most fraudulent in the country’s history.
Khushhal Khan Kakar, Chairman of the Pashtoonkhwa National Awami Party (PkNAP), and Nawabzada Shahzain Bugti, President of the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP), announced in simultaneous press conferences on Tuesday that their organizations would hold a peaceful protest against the “rigged” elections.
Mr Kakar promised to expose individuals implicated in rigging and declared that highways connecting Quetta to Karachi, Chaman, Dera Ghazi Khan, Dera Ismail Khan, and other places would be closed indefinitely if the rigging results were not reversed within two days.
Mr Kakar stated that he got elected to the National Assembly by a large margin over his opponent, but the election outcomes were later allegedly modified using postal ballots.
JWP and PkNAP seek to block roadways leading to Quetta.
“A pre-election and post-election manipulation conspiracy was devised towards the party in order to block its entrance to the parliament and the provincial assembly,” he told reporters. He claimed that rigging began with the delimitation of constituencies, and that “officials known to be against us were appointed as declaring and regional returning officers who had a role in rigging the polls”.
Mr Kakar also alleged Qila’s deputy commissioner, Saifullah, of accepting a bribe for his role in manipulating election results. He claimed Quetta’s deputy commissioner was threatening PkNAP leader Nasrullah Zerey, stating, “Let’s see how you’ll win elections.”
He urged all Baloch, Pashtoon, and Hazara nationalist party leaders, including Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai, to join the PkNAP in the struggle against the alleged rigging.
He cited abnormalities in NA-251, NA-262, NA-265, and NA-263. He also denounced the shooting of Mohsin Dawar and sought the arrest of the culprits.
Shahzain condemns the ‘joke’ with people
JWP President Nawabzada Shahzain Bugti informed a press conference that February 8 was the blackest day in the country’s electoral history, particularly in Balochistan.
“If you were interested in bringing people of your own volition, we should have been told before so that we might have prevented the people from getting harassed,” stated Mr. Bugti. He claimed that his party’s mandate was stolen via a plot. “Around 80 voting centers of Dera Bugti were robbed,” he told reporters.
He stated that the nominee from Dera Bugti had 11 votes in a voting location till the night of election day, but by morning, his vote total had increased to 1,112 in the same polling station. “The state of Pakistan is making a joke with the citizens of Balochistan in the title of the election,” he remarked.
“Peaceful protest is a constitutional right. Protests will be documented on the province’s national highways on February 15 (Thursday),” he declared, requesting that Nadra validate votes cast at Dera Bugti polling stations.
SOURCE: DAWN NEWS
