MQM-P claims 'pre-poll rigging' underway ahead of local body polls

• MQM-P says talks underway with PPP on local polls. 
• "We want elections to be conducted on time," MQM-P says. 
•  JI calls for holding polls immediately in Karachi, Hyderabad.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said Wednesday that "pre-poll rigging" was underway ahead of the local body elections in Karachi and Hyderabad.

After a delay of several months and court cases, the local body polls in the districts are going to take place on January 15. The elections were repeatedly postponed due to floods and a lack of security personnel.

In a press conference in Karachi alongside Jamaat-e-Islami leader Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman, Siddiqui claimed: "Two separate voter lists existed in Karachi and Hyderabad."

"We want elections to be conducted on time [...] protests are our constitutional right and we will exercise that right on January 9," the MQM-P leader said.

Siddiqui said the MQM-P was aware of JI's point of view regarding the local polls and the party has listened to the MQM-P's concerns very carefully and showed sympathy. 

"We came here on a very serious issue," said Siddiqui. He remarked that JI and MQM-P believe that "basic democracy is real democracy. Those who believe in feudal democracy consider basic democracy as a serious threat."

The pre-poll rigging in Karachi and Hyderabad is already done, said Siddiqui, adding that "major tampering was witnessed in the delimitation of the constituencies".

Siddiqui said the MQM-P demand local body elections immediately but they should be conducted in a "free and fair" manner. "How can the elections be accepted when the rigging before the polls is already done?"

Negotiations are underway with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the people would be informed about the situation, said Siddiqui, after the negotiations between the parties seem to have hit a snag.

Meanwhile, speaking at the press conference, JI Karachi Amir Rehman said that in the era of dictatorships, local body elections were held but the democratic governments refrain from holding them.

"We had struggled hard in the General Ayub-led regime. We also went to the courts regarding the voter lists and highlighted this issue," he said, adding that elections were held in 2013, 2015, and 2018.

"The elections took place under unapproved consensus," he said, but noted that "elections [taking place] are better than no elections at all".

Naeem further told the journalists that the city seeks its "own representatives" so that its issues city could be resolved. He also demanded the "empowerment of the local representatives".

"We will not support the postponement of the local body elections in any case. We want the local body elections to take place," said Naeem.

"We maintain that parties should raise their voice on their own platforms regarding the issues". The JI leader said that "we are going to stage a sit-in in front of CM House Karachi tomorrow (January 5)".

He also remarked that local body elections were not held from 2009 to 2015, adding that, in 2015, the polls were held only after court orders.

JI's focus has always remained that local body elections should be held and there has always been the "issue of voters lists and for that, we went to the courts as well".