Karachi (HRNW) Claiming that there were gross errors in delimitations which effectively reduced the weight of a vote in certain areas of Karachi while bolstered the weight of votes in other areas, it was asserted on Friday that the decision taken by the Sindh government to withdraw the delimitations were legal and that the top poll body must respect and follow it.
This was stated by Mutthaida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Barrister Farogh Naseem on Friday while addressing a press conference at the party’s temporary head office at Bahadurabad in Karachi alongside MQM-P leaders including Farooq Sattar, Mustafa Kamal, Waseem Akhtar, Faisal Sabswari and others.
He said that constituencies in the urban areas of the province were delimited under the Sindh Local Government Act 2013, in such a way that contributed to significant discrepancies and weightage of votes in different union councils (UCs) of the city.
He argued that UCs where MQM has a larger vote bank and dense population have been represented with fewer UCs while those UC’s where their vote bank was less and less dense population, comparatively more UCs were created there.
He added that the party’s grievances had been acknowledged by the Supreme Court as well which had directed it to approach the Sindh government and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Naseem further stated that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) is also concerned about the delimitations and agrees with MQM’s complaints.
He demanded that the ECP conduct fresh delimitation of constituencies in urban Sindh to eliminate any unfairness in polls – as per its mandate.
He said that even the Supreme Court (SC) had understood that it was incorrect to delimit one UC on 90,000 votes and the other on just 25,000 votes, which was akin to reducing the weight of some votes by a third.
MQM Senator Faisal Sabzwari questioned how can the ECP guarantee transparent elections after unfair delimitation of constituencies that was plain for everyone to see.
He called for a new census to be conducted in a transparent manner to ensure that people in urban Sindh have equal opportunities for employment in government offices.
He also criticized Jamaat-e-Islami for attempting to politick on a matter about which they either knew very little or had done very little.
“We were the ones who went to the SC and the ECP to raise the matter of incorrect delimitations.
MQM leader Dr Farooq Sattar stressed that their press conference or stance should not be seen as contempt of the ECP or the court.
However, he criticized ECP’s decision to hold local government elections on January 15, stating that to do so would effectively sets aside the decision of Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and the Sindh cabinet.
He said that the issue of fair delimitation of constituencies in Sindh province remains a contentious one, with various political parties raising concerns and calling for fair and transparent processes.