Tribunal asks ECP to denotify Ghulam Muhammad
ISLAMABAD, Dec 16: After ordering re-polling in seven of the polling stations in upper Chitral (PK-90) following the report of the two-man commission, the election tribunal in Peshawar has written to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to denotify the membership of Ghulam Muhammad, it has been learnt.
Well-placed sources told ChitralToday that the re-polling in PK-90 (Chitral-II) will be held within 15-20 days. The tribunal issued the re-polling orders after hearing a petition filed by Sardar Hussain, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidate and the runner-up in the May 11 elections.
The re-election will be held in the polling station number 6 (Govt High School Barum), polling station number 38 (Govt Primary School Zizdi), polling station number 56 (Rech Bala), polling station number 61 (Govt Girls’ High School Booni), polling station number 65 (Govt primary School Charun-Oveer), polling station number 80 (Govt Primary School Awi Lasht) and polling station No 89 (Govt Primary School Mastuj).
When contacted, ECP spokesman in Islamabad Khurshid Alam told ChitralToday that the election in the above mentioned polling stations would be declared null and void before the re-elections in which all the candidates can take part.
“The re-election means no election took place in any of the said polling stations and now all the candidates who had earlier contested elections from the said polling stations can take part. It is not a contest between Ghulam Muhammad and Sardar Hussain alone as all other candidates are free to take part in the elections,” he added.
However, Ghulam Muhammad claimed that he was already leading in the said polling station with 157 votes and now with the orders of re-elections he would be emerge victorious even with more votes, saying he enjoyed enough vote bank in the area.
The sources said that Ghulam Muhammad was also making all-out efforts to woo some of the candidates not to contest elections against him and if things favoured, he might succeeds in lobbying to regain the battle which he has recently lost as a result of recounting.
The sources close to Sardar Hussain, who declined to be named, said that he was equally confident and making all-out efforts to give a humiliating defeat to his archrival Ghulam Muhammad, for which his party workers had already started the campaign.
They said that Sardar Hussain was believed to be enjoying enough support in the polling stations of Charun-Oveer, Rech Bala and Avi Lasht. Besides, they said, some elements were also making efforts to divide the voters using the dirty slogan of Ismaili-Sunni in order to achieve their own vested interests.]]>
Dear All
I enjoyed reading your comments. If you all please try to be neutral. Both our candidates are respectable and have leadership qualities.
Dear fellows, criticism on any political leader or any party is your right, but keep one thing in your mind; neither votes had been cast on sectarian basis before nor will be in future especially when we are talking about upper Chitral. As far as religion is concerned as one of my friend mentioned here, there is only one religion – Islam – whose followers we all upper Chitralis are (in lower Chitral non-Muslim “Kalash” are also there). Sunism and Islmailism are the two sects of Islam.
If we say that Sardar Hussain is using “sect” to obtain votes, we are completely biases, concealing facts, spreading sectarian discrimination and destroying the harmonious society of Chitral because the results of last election clearly indicated that Ghulam Muhammad earned his dominance in the Ismaili dominated areas like Brep, Bang, Zhup etc.
Any such comment can badly affect results of upcoming election and we will have to say;
“HUM WAFADAR NEHI TU B TO DILDAR NEHI”
Sardar Hussain is not only using the religion card but is also dividing the Chitralis on the basis of ethnicity. Actually the Syeds of Chitral have been working against all other tribes since beginning and with a few exceptions they are now trying to grab the seat of MPA to further their so-called “Pir e Mulk Mir Mulk” agenda. It is time we should expose anyone trying to divide the Chitralis on the basis of religion and ethnicity because in the modern and civilized world these have no room and can bring destruction to society. Everyone should be elected or choose on merit and I support Sardar Hussain in the sense that he is a capable, young man with all qualities of a leader but I oppose him because of his policy of promoting ethnicity..
As I had mentioned earlier and now am repeating the same that please don’t behave like uneducated and unethical people. This is the golden chance for the people like Gul Jee, Sarfaraz, Shah Yazdan and many other backbiters who do know nothing except to associate every bad thing with Ghulam Muhammad and praise Sardar Hussain on baseless grounds to come forward and prove that Sardar Hussain is the only ideal and educated candidate for the upcoming election. As far as we know Sardar Hussain does not posses that much qualities which are being mentioned in Chitral Today, but we still admit that he may have that much qualities which you have observed in him. The second important thing which has been mentioned by Jameel Khan is that the politicians should not use religion for politics. I would like to make it clear that Mr. Ghulam Muhammad has never used that dirty slogan for his politics, this slogan was only used by JUI in Chitral but in the May 11 election Sardar Hussain used this tactic to the best of his capacity and myself is the eyewitness to that and can give you proof with the names and situations where he used this slogan. If you all have enmity with Ghulam Muhammad then please come forward with facts and realities. He is not responsible for the misdeed or corruption of each and every contractor of Chitral. As a responsible community members, we all should place a close eye on each minor and major project which are funded either by NGOs or teh government, and report all kind of corruption to the concerned authorities positively. As an independent citizens, we do posses the right to take action against every person who is doing something wrong either he is Ghulam Muhammad, Fizur Rehman, Dawood or anybody else.
@ Sarfaraz Booni.. Just to clarify that your PPP candidate has always been on payroll of the Shahzada group and GM…No one would believe if you say Sardar Hussain has a clean record.. He is known as a black mailer and has on many occasions blackmailed the contractors and taken money from them… Sardar Hussain is known as most unreliable man and is no angel and should be classified in the same group as that of the contractors…
Dear Sarfaraz sahib and all other my colleagues do not worry Inshallah this time the contractor and uneducated mafia, the looter of public money for their own pleasure and the street gang will go and your legal protest against these mafia will bring fruit. Now this is the time that my fellow Chitralian should know the difference between a contractor and a good politician. The contractor should see the roads and other life sources being destroyed during his tenure in my birthplace.
“They (sources) said some elements were also making efforts to divide the voters using the dirty slogan of Ismaili-Sunni in order to achieve their own vested interests.”
Dear reporter, I must say here you must be very careful while reporting to such a newspaper which is being read mostly not only in Chitral but approachable to the whole world in a single click. Chitralians have the experience of sectarian conflict in 1982 but if you ask those who witnessed the situation are very shy of the act taken at that time. Nobody says that from both the sects that this has been done right. Why you again want to raise this sectarian issue. This is politics, make them to do their own. There is peace in Chitral due to the efforts of the respected Ulema of Chitral and other religious scholars. This will never happen again in the history of Chitral InshaAllah. As far as the politics is concerned, if our Ex-MPA Haji Ghulam Muhammad takes the help of such dirty slogans to get votes he must keep in mind that he has votes and support in the Ismaili majority areas. Similarly, Sardar Hussain has the support of areas having Sunni majority. The people of Chitral are very well aware of such dirty slogans and they are democratic as well, they know how to use their rights of vote.
My humble request to you is to look into this matter very carefully while publishing any such type of report which cause trouble to the inhabitants of the area.
Jameel Khan
Chitral
I agree with Jameel Khan. Please keep one thing in mind before commenting that we all Chitralis and we do not want to lose our peace. And also, please do not divide the two communities on the name of religion. We all want TO live in peace.
My dear Salman,
Please be realistic that a contractor cannot become a good polictician because all the contractors moto is to collect money not to serve the community.
Mr Shah where it is written that a contractor can’t be a good leader. Can you give me the name of the reference book where it is written???
Mr Sarfaraz, mind your language young man. Tell me is it prohibited that a contractor cannot be a politician or a good leader. If you want to vote for someone, it does not mean that everyone should like your leader. Ghulam Muhammad is the only MPA who did lots of works for the people of upper Chitral. He will win again in the next election and will continue his good work. Do not be jealous, your leader is now riding a sinking boat.
The people of Chitral have got the final chance to dump the contractor mafia. If we failed to expose them this time, make sure the next generation will never forgive you. So my advise to my Chitrali brothers is that they must learn to differentiate between a leader and a contractor. I would also request my friend Gul Gee of Canada to please come to Pakistan and convince the people of Charun-Oveer to vote for a leader and not a contractor. If Gul Gee failed to make a difference this time, he has no right to make tall claims next time.
Mr Sarfaraz you have no right to criticize the profession of our respected MPA and do not invite other people for help.If you have guts go and campaign for your so-called leader.