PTI's Ali Zaidi, supporters booked over Keamari violence
Pakistan
Police registered a case after several workers of PTI and PPP clashed with each other
KARACHI (Dunya News) – The Keamari police on Thursday booked PTI leader and former federal minister Ali Zaidi and dozens of other workers for protesting outside the Deputy Commissioner (DC) office and damaging public property.
The case followed a scuffle between the PTI and PPP activists that left several injured. Ali Zaidi, Bilal Ghaffar, Saeed Afridi, and other PTI leaders and activists have been booked on the complaint of the district manager of Peoples Bus Service, Kashif Mobeen.
The FIR was registered under sections of attempt to murder, terrorism, aerial firing and others.
Eralier workers of the PPP and the PTI on Wednesday clashed outside the office of the Keamari distrct returning officer (DRO) following the controversial results of the Sindh local government (LG) elections.
The PTI staged a protest against the results outside the Keamari DRO s office. Party’s provincial bigwigs Khurram Sher Zaman and Syed Ali Zaidi led the protest. Police contingents tried to take control of the situation. Reports said the workers pelted each other with stones resulting in injuries of police personnel and four journalists covering the incident. The agitators also broke the windowpanes of the DRO’s office. PTI MNA Syed Ali Zaidi said he was also injured in the clash.
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Mr Zaman said the result was tampered with. “We are demanding the DRO and the DC to notify the results as per the form-11, but they are not responding as they are being pressurised by the provincial government,” he claimed. The administration must, he said, pay heed to our complaints.
Mr Zaidi said the results were being changed inside the DRO s office. “The PPP’s goons came in the presence of the police and started pelting us with stones which left me injured,” he added.
PPP’s Sharjeel Memon said the PTI workers came with a plan to attack the PPP workers. “It is condemnable to attack the opponents after facing defeat in election, however, the administration will take action against the perpetrators,” he added.
Later, the ECP took notice of the “irregularities” in the result of local government (LG) elections in Sindh’s six union councils as well as the clash between workers of the PPP and the PTI.
Earlier, the PPP bagged most seats in Karachi, Hyderabad and other parts of Sindh in the second phase of the local government elections held on Sunday. It sprang a surprise in Karachi where it secured 93 seats. The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) secured 86 seats and the PTI 40 as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday evening released the consolidated results of the 235 union councils in Karachi division.
Despite showing historic performance in the LG elections, the PPP is still unable to get its mayor elected. Therefore, the PPP invited the JI to to hold talks for the position of mayor in Karachi.
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As soon as the polling concluded, the JI announced protest against “delayed and tempered result” in the LG polls across all major cities in the country from Tuesday. JI chief Siraj ul Haq said the JI had sprung up as a big party in the election adding the delay in reporting the result by the Election Commission of Pakistan had spurred doubts. “Not only the JI, but other parties have also suffered due the result”, he added. A day later, the party took to the streets in various cities across the country against alleged rigging in the second phase of local government elections in Karachi.
Not only the JI, but the MQM - that had boycotted the election - accused the PPP of rigging the election. Former Karachi mayor Waseem Akhtar said the recently contested local elections had revealed the true face of the PPP.
