12/05/2013
Send to [email protected] ...Do your part!
Dear Sir,
You may already have received innumerable complaints of rigging in Karachi and I'm doing my part to record my protest. Polls across Karachi were rigged in the worst ways possible and yet you are accepting the results as official? Is that what we should expect after all the claims of free and fair elections? The people of Karachi came out in unprecedented numbers to vote for a cause. I don't have words to express how inspiring it was to see the spirit and enthusiasm people showed yesterday, and I witnessed it myself, heard it from my friends, saw it on television, everywhere. The social media is overflowing with accounts of the elderly, women and people who came out to vote for the first time even though they had never previously voted. It is also overflowing with accounts of how people in ALL CONSTITUENCIES OF KARACHI witnessed poll rigging in front of their own eyes, believe it or not (but I personally think you SHOULD BELIEVE these people because simply because so there are so many of them!). Isn't this a statement in itself how oppressed we feel and how much we want to see change? And then when the Election Commission, rangers, police and our own Army let us down like this, isn't this equivalent to a spit and slap in our faces? Don't you have an inch of pity for us? Is this what we deserve even though we've been living in the toughest of conditions?
It wasn't just NA-250 where voters were not given the chance to exercise their fundamental right to vote. Rigging was rampant in ALL CONSTITUENCIES OF KARACHI, where either people were made to vote under gun point while the rangers and police stood by and did nothing or by simply discarding all votes cast by people and then replacing them with illegal votes. Added to this was the fact that Presiding Officers were not neutral and most voters identified them as belonging to a political party. PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL PROOFS of RIGGING ARE PRESENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA. SIR YOU WILL NOT FIND ANY EVIDENCE OF RIGGING ON THE COWARDLY ELECTRONIC AND PRINT MEDIA influenced by the political parties themselves.
You Sir know very well that under these conditions WE ALL DEMAND, and rightfully so, a RE-ELECTION in ALL CONSTITUENCIES OF KARACHI with neutral people from the ARMY AS PRESIDING OFFICERS. If there is no re-election then Sir you and the Election Commission have not only FAILED the people of Karachi, you have given a free reign to the oppressors to continue their tyranny on this already strained City. If you do order re-election and with the same incompetent presiding officers, then it will be a futile exercise and the people wont come out to again waste their time and energy for a hopeless exercise.
Karachi was the city of lights and its people lively and energetic. But goons and thugs have changed all that. All that remains is some energy and resilience to not bow down to this tyranny. And you saw, I saw,and all of Karachi saw the energy with which people came out to choose their new rulers and in grasping that rope of hope even though it was only for some 8-10 hours. Do you want to ignore that spirit,send Karachi into doom and ignore that the importance this city has for the rest of Pakistan? Does Pakistan want to strike the axe on its own feet? Can it even afford to, under the present conditions?
I so fervently hope this letter and others will convince you to order re-elections in Karachi, whatever the legal barriers maybe. I so fervently hope that you order re-elections not just because they are a legal requirement but because Sir it is your ethical and moral responsibility to order them. Spare a thought for all the strain and struggles we have endured. Is it asking a lot from the CEC and the ECP to order re-elections?
Regards,
A Voter from Karachi
