Activist Jibran Nasir to contest upcoming elections

KARACHI: Human rights activist Mohammad Jibran Nasir has announced to contest upcoming elections from Karachi.

The activist will be contesting as an independent candidate from the National Assembly constituency NA-247 (previously NA-250) and provincial assembly constituency PS-111 (previously PS-113).

It may be noted here that Nasir had contested the 2013 polls from the same constituency and suffered a defeat. “Although I am filing for both the constituencies, I will eventually contest from either one,” he said.

The activist revealed that he would not be joining any political party but will form his own party, where like-minded people representing religious, ethnic, economic and gender groups and other fields will be included.

In view of the Lahore High Court (LHC)’s decision that the nomination papers drafted by the Parliament did not include mandatory information and declarations such as their educational background, criminal record or if they are dual nationals, Nasir said he planned to attach all the relevant documents including financial and tax statements with the nomination papers.

Nasir is one of the activists quite known for unflinchingly raising human rights issues on the social media and he also enjoys a considerable following, especially on his Twitter account. He kept raising his voice on the cases including one of Khadija Siddiqi stabbing and Naqeebullah Mehsud extra-judicial murder case.

Nasir was at the forefront in aggressively pursuing Shahzeb murder case and ran an online campaign against killing of the young man.