JUI announces strike in Balochistan on Jan 8

QUETTA: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) announced a wheel-jam strike in Balochistan on Wednesday against the alleged rigging in the re-polling on a provincial assembly seat, ARY News reported on Monday.

The chief of JUI-F Balochistan chapter Maulana Abdul Wasay, at a press conference in Quetta, said that the party will observe a shutter-down strike in the province on January 8.

While showing the Form 45 results to the media, he alleged rigging in the re-polling at PB-45 Quetta.

Maulana Abdul Wasay said that they will observe the strike on Wednesday due to the suspension of mobile phone service in Quetta by the provincial government.

JUI-F Balochistan Chief alleged that results were altered to favour the PPP candidate and demanded the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to notify JUI-F candidate asthe winner.

He claimed that according to the results of form-45, Mir Usman Pirkani secured 2699 votes while Ali Madad Jattak got only 226 votes.

The strike was originally planned for Tuesday but has been postponed to Wednesday due to the suspension of mobile phone services in Quetta by the provincial government.

On Supreme Court’s order re-polling in 15 polling stations of Balochistan Assembly constituency PB-45 Quetta-VIII was held yesterday in which candidate of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Ali Madad Jattak retained his Balochistan Assembly seat by defeating JUI candidate Mir Usman Pirkani.

Earlier in a statement, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazalur Rehman said that the people of Pakistan do not recognise the incumbent parliament as it is a product of ‘rigging’.

Addressing a presser in Karachi, the JUI-F chief said that the newly elected parliamentarians are not representatives of the people but a product of rigging. He said that the General Elections 2024 is the most ‘rigged’ polls in the country’s history, vowing to carry out a country-wide movement against the same.

Maulana Fazalur Rehman said that the general elections in 2018 were considered the most ‘manipulated’ polls in the county, adding that the record was broken in the 8th February elections.