86 Million Pakistani Voters Turn Down Extremists
By Sarfraz Ali
19 May, 2013
Countercurrents.org
Pakistan's 2013 elections have spelled doom for all banned outfits as more than its 62 election candidates who vied for 70 seats failed to clinch even a single one out of total 849 seats of national and provincial assembly constituencies in Pakistan.
Through their right of franchise, more than 86 million registered voters across the country have authoritatively rejected all defunct organizations and their candidates which vividly suggest that people powered by their vote expelled them from their lives, society and Parliament. Banned already by government due to their ulterior designs and spreading bloodshed under forth schedule of anti-terrorism act 2002 11-EE, now they are banned by veto of vote once for all.
Sources revealed that most of candidates of defunct organizations got fielded in Punjab that include Rahim Yar Khan, Khushab, Bhakhar, Liyya, Bahawalpur, D.G khan, Jhang, Chiniot, Lahore , Faisalabad, Bhawalnagar Muzaffargarh, Jhang, Rawalpindi districts, Jhelum and Rajanpur, Sheikhupura, Khanewal Sialkot, Attock, Sargodha, Toba Tek Singh, Okara and Lodhran. Before elections, a number of candidates of banned outfits were booked and some were put on house arrest. Moderate Shia and Sunni parties staged protest demonstration against them.
The Pakistan Sunni Tehreek (PST) staged demonstration in front of Lahore Press Club in which PST head Ijaz Sarwat Qadri said that sans action against the banned outfits, the dream of peace could not be fulfilled.
Sunni Ittehad Council (SIT) president Hamid Raza told the scribe that government took appropriate action against banned outfits when Ministry of Information and Broadcasting wrote letters to the media representative bodies and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) asking private media to avoid carrying the statements of banned outfits.
In response to Balochistan High Court judgement dated April 9, 2013, he revealed that ministry, in consultation with the Election Commission of Pakistan, constituted a code of conduct for print and electronic media as well as for the political parties wherein a ban had been imposed on media from publishing and broadcasting the statements and hate material issued by the representatives of banned outfits as per law of the land.
“The ministry mentioned that organisations banned under Section 11-B of Anti Terrorism Act-1997 should not be allowed to use print and electronic media for propagation of hate literature and negative material,” he added
But ultimately candidates of banned outfits managed to outsmart the strict sections of 62 and 63 imposed to assess the eligibility of election candidates by Election Commission of Pakistan to stop bad elements to contest the polls. Although these scrupulous people, despite all odds, succeeded in contesting May 11 elections, but they could not stand longer at the will of voters who destined them to virtual death.
As per available list received from a senior officer of government, sectarian elements who contested the elections had association with the defunct Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), which has already been reshaped as Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), led by Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi. ASWJ did not register itself with the ECP it has fielded candidates on Muttahida Deeni Mahaz (MDM/United Religious Front) platform. Candidates linking to Insarul Islam, Lashkar-e-Islam, Tehrik-e-Jafria Pakistan (TJP) and Jamiat Ahle Hadith (JAH) and defunct Harkatul Mujahideen (HuM), Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) and the Sipah-e-Mohammad Pakistan (SMP) participated as independent and other new registered parties name.
Following is a constituency-wide list of the sectarian elements along with the names of their organisations who have been allowed by the Election Commission to contest the coming polls: Moulana Asif Mavia SSP/ASWJ(NA90)Anas bin Malik SSP/ASWJ(NA-180).Yasir Khan SSP/ASWJ NA(178).Moulana Bilal Umer SSP/ASWJ NA(52)Mufti Abdul Basit SSP/ASWJ NA(53)Umar Farooq of SSP/ASWJ (NA-86 Chiniot), Syed Ali Raza of TJP (NA-88 Chiniot), Intizar Hussain of SSP-ASWJ (PP-73 Chiniot), Qari Shabbir Ahmed Usmani of SSP/ASWJ (PP-75 Chiniot), Rana Mohammad Arshad of SSP/ASWJ (NA-94 Toba Tek Singh), Malik Mohammad Bashir of JI (PP-33 Sargodha), Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haqqani of SSP/ASWJ (PP-50 Bhakkar), Maulana Abdul Khaliq Rehmani of SSP/ASWJ (NA-156 and PP-213 Khanewal), Qari Rahimullah Mithu of SSP/ASWJ (PP-149 Lahore), Iftikhar Ahmed (NA-144 Okara), Hafiz Mohammad Ishfaq Gujjar of SSP/ASWJ (PP-167 Sheikhupura), Syed Raza Hasan Babar of TJP (NA-133 and PP-167 Sheikhupura), Qari Saifullah Saifi of JUI-F (NA-50 Sialkot), Khalid Mehmood Butt of SSP/ASWJ (NA-113 Sialkot), Mohammad Ishfaq Abbasi of SSP/ASWJ (PP-1 Rawalpindi), Ansar Manzoor of SSP/ASWJ (PP-1 Rawalpindi), Abdul Shakoor of JUI-F (PP-2 Rawalpindi), Zahid Iqbal Bakhtavri (NA-54), Irqar Ahmed Abbasi (PP-15 Rawalpindi), Umar Farooq of MDM (NA-59 Attock), Sikandar Hayat of JAH (PP-54 Jaranwala), Maulana Sajid Farooqi of SSP/ASWJ (PP-56 Jaranwala), Hafiz Suhail of SSP/ASWJ (PP-72 Faisalabad), Iftikhar Hussain Naqvi of TJP (PP-66 Faisalabad), Maulana Suleman Jhangvi of SSP/ASWJ (PP-70 Faisalabad), Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Jhangvi, Mohammad Moavia, Masroor Nawaz and Hakim Ali of SSP/ASWJ (NA-89 Faisalabad), Maulana Mohammad Asif and Ikhlaq Ahmed of SSP/ASWJ (NA-90 Jhang), Azhar Husain Kazmi of MWM (PP-82 Jhang), Malik Saeed Ahmed of SSP/ASWJ (PP78), Qari Sanaullah of SSP/ASWJ (PP-266 Layyah), Saifullah Khalid of SSP/ASWJ (NA-184), Malik Mohammad Aleem of SSP/ASWJ (PP-268 Bahawalpur), Rao Javed Iqbal of SSP/ASWJ (NA-186 and PP-269), Mohammad Ismail of SSP/ASWJ (PP-285 Rahim Yar Khan), Kazim Ali Haideri of TJP (NA-180 Muzaffargarh), Ans Bin Malik of SSP/ASWJ (NA-180 and PP-260 Muzaffargarh), Arshad Siddiqi of SSP/ASWJ (NA-176 and PP-251 Muzaffargarh), Tayyab Farooqi of SSP/ASWJ (PP-252 Muzaffargarh), Qari Taj Saqib of SSP/ASWJ (NA-177 Muzaffargarh), Ashiq Hussain Bhoot of SSP/ASWJ (PP-261 Muzaffargarh), Arshad Leghari of JI (NA-177 and PP-255 Muzaffargarh), Syed Ali Haider Zaidi of SMP (NA-178 Muzaffargarh), Sabir Hussain of SSP/ASWJ (PP-225 Muzaffargarh), Mohammad Tayab of SSP/ASWJ (PP-259 Muzaffargarh), Mohammad Anwarul Haq of SSP/ASWJ (PP-247 Rajanpur), Dr Abdul Rauf of SSP/ASWJ (PP-248 Rajanpur), Tariq Mahmood of SSP/ASWJ (PP-249 Rajanpur), and Mohammad Tahir of SSP/ASWJ (PP-250 Rajanpur).
Senior political analyst Hassan Askari categorized vote of rejection against banned outfits as mounting awareness among the people which would set new directions of progress and peace in the country. Pissed out violence, people have distanced themselves from fanatics, he held an opinion.
Sources close to banned outfits spilled the beans that after suffering severe blow of shameful defeat in elections, defunct organizations are in doldrums. Their central leadership has put their headed together to hash out a strategy brainstorming as to how to recover from damage. Some advised to reject the elections results, terming them engineered or rigged to save skin. However, decision to this effect is still pending.
As time wears on and new government will rule the roost, situation will much clear about the fate of banned outfits now licking the scars of worst defeat in elections.
The writer is Lahore based journalist and can be contacted at: [email protected]
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