MMA loses seats in recounts in Karachi

With the election commission announcing official results six days after the polling, the main alliance of the religious parties lost several seats in the National and Sindh Provincial Assemblies in recounting in the port city of Karachi.

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), which in the initial count bagged seven National Assembly seats out of a total of 20 seats from Karachi, has seen its share dwindling to five in the 130-member house, Munawwar Hasan, a central leader of the alliance told Gulf News.

In the Sindh Provincial Assembly, the MMA's tally has been reduced to 10 seats from the initial of 14, he added.

In the recount, one of the National Assembly seat has gone to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the other to its dissident faction – the Mohajir Qaumi Movement.

Aslam Mujahid, a senior member of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a main component party of the MMA, has lost to Mahmood Ahmed Qureshi of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement on NA-255 from the Landhi- Korangi area with a margin of more than 3,000 votes. Earlier the MMA claimed victory in this seat.

Maulana Shireen Mohammed of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, another key party of the MMA, lost to the MQM's Sarkaruddin on NA-240 Pak Colony neighbourhood.

All the four Provincial Assembly seats, where the MMA was initially declared winner, have gone to the MQM, Hasan said. The MQM now has 31 seats in the Sindh Provincial Assembly, and the Pakistan People's Party has 51.

Hasan alleged that the number of MQM seats is being increased after the government struck a deal with its leaders. In the recount even the invalid votes are being added. This is the first example of the post-poll rigging, he said.

But the MQM denies the charge and accuses the MMA of rigging the elections.

Farooq Sattar, a senior MQM leader, has said that the Jamaat-e-Islami backed-city government "blatantly misused power and resources to support the MMA candidates."

Voters' lists were missing at scores of polling stations, at others polling started late, while at several places the ballot boxes were stuffed, he said.

The MMA also denies the charge by the MQM, which has been shaken by the victory of religious forces in its stronghold. In the last elections, the religious parties failed to win even a single seat in Karachi.

Hasan, meanwhile, said that he has fears that one or two other seats won by the MMA could be given to the MQM in recounting.

The election commission last night notified the official results of the October 10 elections. Almost all the major political parties, including the Pakistan People's Party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and the MQM have alleged that the polling was manipulated or rigged.

The MMA, which emerged as the third largest group in the National Assembly and the biggest in the North-West Frontier Province and southwestern Balochistan bordering Afghanistan, is the most recent group to join the chorus accusing the government of rigging.

Hasan said that the MQM has lost ground to the religious forces and now the government is providing them crutches to keep it afloat.

The MQM has been dominating elections in Karachi since mid-1980s. But before the emergence of the MQM, religious forces enjoyed overwhelming support in the Pakistan's commercial hub and the main port city.