Pakistan: Jamaat-e-Islami leader alleges rigging, gives up seat for rival

After winning provincial elections in Karachi, the country’s commercial center, last week, a prominent Pakistani politician resigned from office, claiming that the results were manipulated to benefit him. On February 8, Pakistan held national and local elections. However, there were allegations of vote-rigging against independent candidates who were supported by the imprisoned former prime leader, Imran Khan. The Pakistani election commission and caretaker administration have denied the accusations, stating that the nation has mechanisms in place to go into individual concerns. After receiving more than 26,000 votes, Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party was proclaimed the victor of Karachi’s provincial seat 129. However, Rehman claimed he found that when records of votes cast at individual polling places were collated, the number of votes cast for Saif Bari, the independent candidate supported by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, dropped from 31,000 to 11,000 votes. After a falling out with the nation’s formidable military and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf being banned from running in elections, forcing members to run as independents, Imran Khan was imprisoned on corruption and criminal accusations. Politics interference is denied by the military. “Public opinion should be respected, let the winner win, let the loser lose, no one should get anything extra,” Mr Rehman told news agency Reuters on Wednesday. “I will not accept it, the winner should be given the victory.”