ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Karachi chief Naeemur Rehman said on Monday that his party would stage a protest outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) office in Islamabad on June 23 (Friday) against the PPP government’s alleged use of force to win the Karachi mayoral election.

“It will be a massive protest and we will question the ECP about the polls it held in Karachi […] the ECP will have to declare the election invalid and rectify all its mistakes,” he said.

The JI and PPP have been at odds after Murtaza Wahab was elected as the mayor of Karachi in a tough fight last week. The PPP had formed an alliance with PML-N and JUI-F, taking their combined strength to 173, while the JI had the support of 61 PTI members, taking the expected number of votes for Rehman to 192.

While Wahab secured all 173 expected votes, Rehman only managed to get 160 after 30 union council members abstained from the polling process. However, the JI has alleged that the provincial government had coerced the PTI members and rejected the polls.

The party also observed ‘Black Day’ on June 17 and held protests across the country.

Addressing a press conference in Karachi today, JI’s Rehman said that the party was mulling taking a convoy of protesters from Karachi to the federal capital on June 23.

“We can’t accept these fake and rigged elections,” he asserted, adding that the PPP had “unlawfully held Karachi’s mandate” to keep its “donkey network” active.

Rehman went on to say that the ECP had completely failed to hold free and fair elections in Karachi, questioning how the body would be able to hold polls across the country. “This was just a trailer, the entire film is yet to be unveiled.”

“How can we trust this institution to hold unbiased elections? If the ECP works as a facilitator for parties, how will democracy flourish in Pakistan?”

The JI Karachi chief vowed that his party would adopt every legal and constitutional path to bring the truth before the public.

“If you had won the elections in a fair manner, we would have accepted the results without any complaints. But we won’t accept this rigging in any way.”

Rehman further warned that he wouldn’t let the PPP interfere in the development work underway in JI’s union councils.